Abstract
In this paper, we study a two-stage rent-seeking game. In the first stage, contestants compete à-la-Tullock; in the second stage, the winner can resell the rent à-la-Coase. We consider a complete information Tullock game in which the contestants have different valuations for the rent. The analysis focuses on the ex ante effects of a secondary market on efforts, payoffs, rent-dissipation and rent-misallocation. We show that the secondary market, while correcting possible misallocations, may exacerbate rent dissipation. In some situations, the increase in rent dissipation more than offsets the allocative advantage, so that a secondary market might reduce welfare. We further show how the effect of ex post tradeability on welfare depends on the parties' bargaining power and valuations of the rent, also considering the case of endogenous bargaining power.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 171-196 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Public Choice |
Volume | 139 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:G. Dari-Mattiacci gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the NWO grant 016.075.332.
Funding Information:
S. Onderstal gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the NWO grant 453.03.606.
Keywords
- Asymmetric rent valuations
- Rent-dissipation
- Rent-misallocation
- Rent-seeking