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Do Too Many Cooks Always Spoil the Stew? An Experimental Analysis of Rent-Seeking and the Role of a Strategic Buyer

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Author Info
 Davis, Douglas D
Reilly, Robert J

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Abstract

Laboratory methods are used to evaluate the effects of institutional arrangements and rent-defending activity on rent-seeking auction outcomes. In part, Nash equilibrium predictions are a useful behavioral guide: as predicted, more rents are dissipated in perfectly-discriminating auctions, where the high-bidder wins, than in lotteries, where relative bids determine the chance of winning. Also as predicted, the introduction of a rent-defending buyer reduces social costs. Nevertheless, the social costs of rent-seeking consistently exceed predicted levels. Moreover, individual bidding, especially by buyers, deviates markedly from Nash predictions. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Public Choice.

Volume (Year): 95 (1998)
Issue (Month): 1-2 (April)
Pages: 89-115
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Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:95:y:1998:i:1-2:p:89-115

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  1. Fisher, Franklin M, 1985. "The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation: Posner Reconsidered," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 410-16, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Shogren, Jason F & Baik, Kyung H, 1991. " Reexamining Efficient Rent-Seeking in Laboratory Markets," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 69-79, February.
  3. Wenders, John T, 1987. "On Perfect Rent Dissipation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 456-59, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Dougan, William R & Snyder, James M, 1993. " Are Rents Fully Dissipated?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 77(4), pages 793-813, December.
  5. Millner, Edward L & Pratt, Michael D, 1991. " Risk Aversion and Rent-Seeking: An Extension and Some Experimental Evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 81-92, February.
  6. Posner, Richard A, 1975. "The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(4), pages 807-27, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Nitzan, Shmuel, 1991. " Rent-Seeking with Non-identical Sharing Rules," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 71(1-2), pages 43-50, August.
  8. Ellingsen, Tore, 1991. "Strategic Buyers and the Social Cost of Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 648-57, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Arthur J.H.C. Schram, 2002. "Experimental Public Choice," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 02-106/1, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  2. John Cadigan & Pamela Schmitt & Kurtis Swope & Robert Shupp, 2004. "Multi-Period Rent-Seeking Contests with Carryover: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Departmental Working Papers 5, United States Naval Academy Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  3. David Bullock & E. Rutström, 2007. "Policy making and rent-dissipation: An experimental test," Experimental Economics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 21-36, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. David Schmidt & Robert S. Shupp & James Walker, 2005. "Resource Allocation Contests: Experimental Evidence," Working Papers 200506, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2005. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Alexander Matros & Wooyoung Lim & Theodore Turocy, 2009. "Raising Revenue With Raffles: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment," Working Papers 377, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2009. [Downloadable!]
  6. Yasar Barut & Dan Kovenock & Charles Noussair, 1999. "A Comparison of Multiple-Unit All-Pay and Winner-Pay Auctions Under Incomplete Information," CIG Working Papers FS IV 99-09, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG). [Downloadable!]
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  7. Dmitry Ryvkin, 2009. "Fatigue in dynamic tournaments," Working Papers wp2009_06_03, Department of Economics, Florida State University. [Downloadable!]
  8. Klaus Abbink & Jordi Brandts & Benedikt Herrmann & Henrik Orzen, 2007. "Inter-Group Conflict and Intra-Group Punishment in an Experimental Contest Game," Discussion Papers 2007-15, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Subhasish M. Chowdhury & Dan Kovenock J. & Roman M. Sheremeta, 2009. "An Experimental Investigation of Colonel Blotto Games," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  10. Antonio Filippin, 2003. "Discrimination and workers' expectations: experimental evidence," Departemental Working Papers 2003-16, Department of Economics University of Milan Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Bullock, David S. & Rutstrom, Elisabet E., 2001. "The Size Of The Prize: Testing Rent-Dissipation When Transfer Quantity Is Endogenous," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20447, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association). [Downloadable!]
  12. Xiaojing Kong, 2008. "Loss Aversion and Rent-Seeking: An Experimental Study," Discussion Papers 2008-13, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham. [Downloadable!]
  13. Florian Englmaier & Pablo Guillen & Loreto Llorente & Sander Onderstal & Rupert Sausgruber, 2006. "The Chopstick Auction: A Study of the Exposure Problem in Multi-Unit Auctions," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Miguel A. Fonseca, 2006. "It's not how you play the game, it's winning that matters: an experimental investigation of asymmetric contests," DOCUMENTOS DE CERAC 002927, CERAC -CENTRO DE RECURSOS PARA EL ANÁLISIS DE CONFLICTOS-. [Downloadable!]
  15. Douglas D. Davis & Laura Razzolini & Robert Reilly & Bart J. Wilson, 2003. "Raising Revenues for Charity: Auctions versus Lotteries," Working Papers 0301, VCU School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  16. Christine Harbring & Bernd Irlenbusch & Matthias Kräkel & Reinhard Selten, 2004. "Sabotage in Asymmetric Contests – An Experimental Analysis," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers bgse12_2004, University of Bonn, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  17. Benedikt Herrmann & Henrik Orzen, 2008. "The appearance of homo rivalis: Social preferences and the nature of rent seeking," Discussion Papers 2008-10, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham. [Downloadable!]
  18. Lugovskyy, Volodymyr & Puzzello, Daniela & Tucker, Steven, 2008. "An experimental investigation of overdissipation in the all pay auction," MPRA Paper 8604, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  19. Muller, W. & Schotter, A., 2003. "Workaholics and drop outs in optimal organizations," Discussion Paper 43, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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