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Rent-seeking with scarce talent: A model of preemptive hiring

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  • Sami Dakhlia
  • Paul Pecorino

Abstract

In a standard rent-seeking contest, players optimally employ resources in an attempt to obtain the rent. Typically, it is assumed that these resources may be hired at any desired level at some exogenous per-unit cost. In practice, these resources often consist of scarce, talented individuals. We model a rent-seeking contest with scarce talent and find that talent scarcity leads to preemptive hiring by the player receiving the larger rent. This player hires all available talent and wins the contest with probability 1. This is true even when the difference in rents is small. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Sami Dakhlia & Paul Pecorino, 2006. "Rent-seeking with scarce talent: A model of preemptive hiring," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 129(3), pages 475-486, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:129:y:2006:i:3:p:475-486
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-006-9067-3
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    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "The Champions League and the Coase Theorem," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 10, pages 202-225, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Paul Schweinzer & Joanna K. Swaffield, 2014. "What’s in it for the firms? Living wage adoption as signal of ethical practice," Discussion Papers 14/21, Department of Economics, University of York.
    3. Amy Farmer & Paul Pecorino, 2010. "Is the Coach Paid too Much?: Coaching Salaries and the NCAA Cartel," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 841-862, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rent-seeking; Scarce talent; Labor market; Lobbying; Preemptive hiring;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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