IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v61y2017i10p2158-2182.html

The Prince—or Better No Prince? The Strategic Value of Appointing a Successor

Author

Listed:
  • Kai A. Konrad
  • Vai-Lam Mui

Abstract

Appointing a successor (the “prince†) allows the ruler (the “king†) to alter the structures of conflicts that take place between him and his potential challengers, as well as the structures of conflicts that take place among his potential challengers. Motivated by historical examples and using an infinite horizon rulership competition game, we show that while an appointed prince constitutes a powerful and dangerous threat to the incumbent ruler (the elevated threat effect ), the appointed prince can also offer the incumbent ruler increased protection against other potential challengers (the barrier effect ). We determine conditions when the overall effect of appointing a successor benefits the incumbent ruler and enables him to acquire a larger share of the governance rent in equilibrium.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai A. Konrad & Vai-Lam Mui, 2017. "The Prince—or Better No Prince? The Strategic Value of Appointing a Successor," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 61(10), pages 2158-2182, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:61:y:2017:i:10:p:2158-2182
    DOI: 10.1177/0022002716631103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002716631103
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0022002716631103?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamilton, Jonathan H. & Slutsky, Steven M., 1990. "Endogenous timing in duopoly games: Stackelberg or cournot equilibria," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 29-46, March.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2009. "Do Juntas Lead to Personal Rule?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 298-303, May.
    3. Jean-Paul Azam, 2002. "Looting and Conflict between Ethnoregional Groups," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(1), pages 131-153, February.
    4. Robert K. Fleck & F. Andrew Hanssen, 2013. "How Tyranny Paved the Way to Democracy: The Democratic Transition in Ancient Greece," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 389-416.
    5. Zhang, Yan & Rajagopalan, Nandini, 2010. "CEO succession planning: Finally at the center stage of the boardroom," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 455-462, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yaguang Zhang & Sitian Yu & Shengyi Zhang, 2023. "The political economy of imperial power successions in ancient China," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(1), pages 137-166, October.

    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. Kai A. Konrad & Vai-Lam Mui, 2015. "The Prince – or better no prince? The Strategic Value of Appointing a Successor," Monash Economics Working Papers 15-15, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    2. Kevin Siqueira & Todd Sandler, 2006. "Terrorists versus the Government," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 50(6), pages 878-898, December.
    3. Juan Carlos Bárcena-Ruiz & F. Javier Casado-Izaga, 2005. "Spatial competition and the duration of managerial incentive contracts," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 29(2), pages 331-349, May.
    4. Matsui, Kenji, 2020. "Optimal bargaining timing of a wholesale price for a manufacturer with a retailer in a dual-channel supply chain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(1), pages 225-236.
    5. Ciwei Dong & Liu Yang & Chi To Ng, 2020. "Quantity Leadership for a Dual-Channel Supply Chain with Retail Service," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 37(02), pages 1-32, March.
    6. Corrado Benassi & Alessandra Chirco & Caterina Colombo, 2021. "Efficiency of bilateral delegation in a mixed Cournot duopoly," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 493-508, July.
    7. van Damme, Eric & Hurkens, Sjaak, 1999. "Endogenous Stackelberg Leadership," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 105-129, July.
    8. Lambertini, Luca, 1997. "Prisoners' Dilemma in Duopoly (Super)Games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 181-191, November.
    9. Marco Marini & Alberto Zevi, 2011. "‘Just one of us’: consumers playing oligopoly in mixed markets," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 239-263, November.
    10. repec:tsa:wpaper:0143eco is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Yushi Tsunoda, 2022. "When should a firm set its selling price to cope with gray market trade?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 16-25, January.
    12. Dewit, Gerda & Leahy, Dermot, 2004. "Rivalry in uncertain export markets: commitment versus flexibility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 195-209, October.
    13. Chen, Yutian & Dubey, Pradeep & Sen, Debapriya, 2011. "Outsourcing induced by strategic competition," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 484-492, July.
    14. Guth, Werner & Ritzberger, Klaus & van Damme, Eric, 2004. "On the Nash bargaining solution with noise," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 697-713, June.
    15. L. Lambertini & R. Rovelli, 2003. "Monetary and fiscal policy coordination and macroeconomic stabilization. A theoretical analysis," Working Papers 464, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    16. Ola Olsson & Heather Congdon Fors, 2004. "Congo: The Prize of Predation," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 41(3), pages 321-336, May.
    17. Anke Gerber & Salvador Barberà, 2024. "On the Endogenous Order of Play in Sequential Games," Working Papers 1443, Barcelona School of Economics.
    18. Yuanzhu Lu, 2005. "Endogenous Timing in a Mixed Oligopoly with Foreign Competitors," Industrial Organization 0508012, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Oksana Loginova & X. Hnery Wang, 2010. "Customization in an Endogenous-Timing Game with Vertical Differentiation," Working Papers 1008, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    20. Huck, Steffen & Konrad, Kai A. & Müller, Wieland, 2000. "Profitable horizontal mergers: A market structure-oriented view," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2000,27, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    21. Rabah Amir & Giuseppe Feo, 2014. "Endogenous timing in a mixed duopoly," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(3), pages 629-658, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:jocore:v:61:y:2017:i:10:p:2158-2182. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    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.