IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v202y2025i3d10.1007_s11127-024-01219-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tullock contest alliances with proportional prize-sharing agreements: private collective action mechanisms?

Author

Listed:
  • James Boudreau

    (Kennesaw State University)

  • Shane Sanders

    (Syracuse University)

Abstract

This paper focuses on humanity’s supposedly irrational behavior in conflict decision-making, challenging two rationalist puzzles in political science and economics: war’s inefficiency and alliance formation. More specifically, we ask whether alliances can benefit the allies. Standard Tullock contest alliances are plagued by free riding, undermining successful collective action. In a three-party contest environment when two of the parties ally, input substitution and fixed prize division hinder collective action. Analyzing the same contest with input-cost complementarity and proportional prize division, we propose a transformative solution that avoids the usual problems of alliance formation and stability. While input-cost complementarity partially mitigates those concerns, a proportional prize-sharing agreement offers a comprehensive remedy, ensuring equitable contributions and gains for the allied parties. The proposed approach not only resolves the alliance-formation puzzle but also enhances the allies’ prospects for success.

Suggested Citation

  • James Boudreau & Shane Sanders, 2025. "Tullock contest alliances with proportional prize-sharing agreements: private collective action mechanisms?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 202(3), pages 367-381, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:202:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11127-024-01219-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-024-01219-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11127-024-01219-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11127-024-01219-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Konrad, Kai A. & Kovenock, Dan, 2009. "The alliance formation puzzle and capacity constraints," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 84-86, May.
    2. Todd Sandler, 1999. "Alliance Formation, Alliance Expansion, and the Core," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 43(6), pages 727-747, December.
    3. James W. Boudreau & Lucas Rentschler & Shane Sanders, 2019. "Stag hunt contests and alliance formation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 267-285, June.
    4. James W. Boudreau & Shane Sanders & Nicholas Shunda, 2019. "The role of noise in alliance formation and collusion in conflicts," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 249-266, June.
    5. Justin Ehrlich & Matthew Harmon & Shane Sanders, 2020. "The alliance formation puzzle in contests with capacity-constraints: A test using American football reception-coverage contest data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-13, March.
    6. Hideo Konishi & Chen‐Yu Pan, 2020. "Sequential formation of alliances in survival contests," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 16(1), pages 95-105, March.
    7. Peter T. Leeson & David B. Skarbek, 2010. "Criminal constitutions," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 279-297, August.
    8. Justin George & Todd Sandler, 2022. "NATO defense demand, free riding, and the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(4), pages 783-806, December.
    9. Todd Sandler & James C. Murdoch, 2000. "On sharing NATO defence burdens in the 1990s and beyond," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 297-327, September.
    10. Smith, Vernon L. & Wilson, Bart J., 2018. "Equilibrium play in voluntary ultimatum games: Beneficence cannot be extorted," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 452-464.
    11. Jan Osborn & Bart J. Wilson & Bradley R. Sherwood, 2015. "Conduct in narrativized trust games," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(3), pages 562-597, January.
    12. Kai Konrad, 2012. "Information alliances in contests with budget limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 679-693, June.
    13. Africa Ariño & Peter Smith Ring, 2010. "The role of fairness in alliance formation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(10), pages 1054-1087, October.
    14. Michael C. Munger, 2019. "Tullock and the welfare costs of corruption: there is a “political Coase Theorem”," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 83-100, October.
    15. Leeson, Peter T., 2011. "Government, clubs, and constitutions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 301-308.
    16. Fearon, James D., 1995. "Rationalist explanations for war," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 379-414, July.
    17. Murdoch, James C. & Sandler, Todd, 1984. "Complementarity, free riding, and the military expenditures of NATO allies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 83-101, November.
    18. Wukki Kim & Todd Sandler, 2020. "NATO at 70: Pledges, Free Riding, and Benefit-Burden Concordance," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 400-413, June.
    19. Timothy Mathews & Shane Sanders, 2019. "Strategic and experimental analyses of conflict and terrorism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 169-174, June.
    20. Keith Hartley & Todd Sandler, 2001. "Economics of Alliances: The Lessons for Collective Action," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 869-896, September.
    21. Skaperdas, Stergios, 1998. "On the Formation of Alliances in Conflict and Contests," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 96(1-2), pages 25-42, July.
    22. Matthew D. Mitchell, 2019. "Rent seeking at 52: an introduction to a special issue of public choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 1-4, October.
    23. Jan Osborn & Bart J. Wilson & Bradley R. Sherwood, 2015. "Conduct in narrativized trust games," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 562-597, January.
    24. repec:wly:soecon:v:81:3:y:2015:p:562-597 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Sandler, Todd & Forbes, John F, 1980. "Burden Sharing, Strategy, and the Design of NATO," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(3), pages 425-444, July.
    26. Chang, Yang-Ming & Potter, Joel & Sanders, Shane, 2007. "War and peace: Third-party intervention in conflict," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 954-974, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Justin George & Todd Sandler, 2022. "NATO defense demand, free riding, and the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(4), pages 783-806, December.
    2. Justin George & Todd Sandler, 2024. "A spatial analysis of NATO burden sharing at the operational levels," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(4), pages 1026-1047, November.
    3. Dan Kovenock & Brian Roberson, 2012. "Coalitional Colonel Blotto Games with Application to the Economics of Alliances," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 14(4), pages 653-676, August.
    4. Garfinkel, Michelle R. & Skaperdas, Stergios, 2007. "Economics of Conflict: An Overview," Handbook of Defense Economics, in: Keith Hartley & Todd Sandler (ed.), Handbook of Defense Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 22, pages 649-709, Elsevier.
    5. Wukki Kim & Todd Sandler & Hirofumi Shimizu, 2024. "An expanded investigation of alliance security free riding," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(4), pages 570-582, September.
    6. Konishi, Hideo & Pan, Chen-Yu, 2021. "Endogenous alliances in survival contests," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 337-358.
    7. George, Justin & Sandler, Todd, 2018. "Demand for military spending in NATO, 1968–2015: A spatial panel approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 222-236.
    8. Founta Konstantina & Kollias Christos & Tzeremes Panayiotis, 2025. "“You don’t Pay Your Bills You Get No Protection”: A Trump Effect on NATO Members’ Military Expenditures?," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 31(2), pages 145-160.
    9. Thomas Plümper & Eric Neumayer, 2015. "Free-riding in alliances: Testing an old theory with a new method," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 32(3), pages 247-268, July.
    10. Kai Konrad, 2012. "Information alliances in contests with budget limits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 679-693, June.
    11. Kai A. Konrad & Florian Morath, 2018. "To Deter Or To Moderate? Alliance Formation In Contests With Incomplete Information," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1447-1463, July.
    12. David Rietzke & Brian Roberson, 2013. "The robustness of ‘enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend’ alliances," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 40(4), pages 937-956, April.
    13. Michelle R. Garfinkel, 2004. "On the Stability of Group Formation: Managing the Conflict Within," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 21(1), pages 43-68, February.
    14. Francis Bloch, 2009. "Endogenous formation of alliances in conflicts," Working Papers hal-00435387, HAL.
    15. Timothy Mathews & Shane Sanders, 2019. "Strategic and experimental analyses of conflict and terrorism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 169-174, June.
    16. Anderton,Charles H. & Carter,John R., 2009. "Principles of Conflict Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521875578, December.
    17. Todd Sandler & Justin George, 2016. "Military Expenditure Trends for 1960–2014 and What They Reveal," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(2), pages 174-184, May.
    18. Bo Chen & Shanlin Jin, 2023. "Elimination contests with collusive team players," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(1), pages 61-89, February.
    19. Olejnik, Łukasz Wiktor, 2024. "Left-wing butter vs. right-wing guns: Government ideology and disaggregated military expenditures," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-026, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Justin George & Todd Sandler, 2021. "EU Demand for Defense, 1990–2019: A Strategic Spatial Approach," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:202:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11127-024-01219-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.