Conflict and distribution
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Conflict and distribution
zbMATH Open document ID: 0960.91023
author: Debraj Ray
author: Joan Maria Esteban
published in: Journal of Economic Theory
publication date: 1999-12-20T00:00:00Z
review text: The aim of the paper is to study the relationship between conflict and the shape of the frequency distribution of individuals over a given set of alternative preferences. An outcome is viewed as a realization of a lottery, where outcome probabilities are related to the share of resources expended by each ``interest'' group. Conflict is defined as the equilibrium sum of resources dissipated in the struggle for preferred outcomes. Existence of conflict equilibrium is proved and sufficient conditions for uniqueness are given. Some other results are the following: (1) an increase in the utility distance between any pair of groups leads to an increase of conflict; (2) conflict is maximized at some symmetric bimodal distribution of the population in case groups' preferences are symmetric; (3) the uniform distribution of population over three groups is a local but never global maximizer of conflict in the case of pure contests; (4) in the situation of contests, the larger a group the more contentious it is; (5) the relationship between the pattern of conflict and the groups' weigths and positions in the structure of preferences can be very complicated in general; (6) at some point an extremist situation changes to a moderate one as extremist groups shrink in population size.
reviewed by: Anna Gomolińska
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91B10
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91B50
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91A40
zbMATH DE Number: 1356426
zbMATH Keywords: model of conflict
zbMATH Keywords: conflict equilibrium
zbMATH Keywords: groups' preferences
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: jeth.1999.2549
OpenAlex ID: W2044739107
cites work: Social conflict and growth.
cites work: On the Measurement of Polarization
cites work: Power, growth, and the voracity effect
cites work: Empirics for growth and distribution: Stratification, polarization, and convergence clubs
cites work: Contest success functions
DOI: 10.1006/JETH.1999.2549
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1356426