Decisiveness and the Viability of Anarchy

17 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2001

See all articles by Herschel I. Grossman

Herschel I. Grossman

affiliation not provided to SSRN (deceased)

Minseong Kim

Sungkyunkwan University

Juan Mendoza

SUNY at Buffalo, College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Economics

Date Written: January 2001

Abstract

This paper explores how the viability of anarchy depends on the decisiveness parameter that determines the marginal effect of allocating a resource to an appropriative competition. In a one-factor model in which agents use in the appropriative competition the same resource that they are competing to appropriate, anarchy appears to be fragile, because in this model equilibrium consumption would be adequate for the viability of anarchy only if the decisiveness parameter were small. But, we show that this analysis is not robust. Specifically, we find that in a more credible model, in which the resource that agents compete to appropriate and the resource that agents use in the appropriative competition are distinct, anarchy is viable even if the decisiveness parameter is large.

Keywords: Anarchy, Appropriative Competition, Decisiveness

JEL Classification: D74, D23

Suggested Citation

Grossman (deceased), Herschel I. and Kim, Minseong and Mendoza, Juan J., Decisiveness and the Viability of Anarchy (January 2001). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=261697 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.261697

Herschel I. Grossman (deceased) (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN (deceased)

Minseong Kim

Sungkyunkwan University ( email )

110-745 Seoul
Korea

HOME PAGE: http://my.skku.edu/my/minseong

Juan J. Mendoza

SUNY at Buffalo, College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Economics ( email )

415 Fronczak Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
United States
716-645-2121 ext. 36 (Phone)
716-645-2127 (Fax)