The value of rents and the likelihood of conflicts

This paper extends the prey-predator model of Grossman and Kim (J Political Econ 103:1275-1288, 1995) to analyze the relation between the value of a contested rent and the emergence of conflict. We show that an increase in the value of the rent makes a conflict equilibrium more likely. We also analyze the case where the valuation of the rent is different for the two players. We find, for example, that a conflict equilibrium may occur even though the predator has an important disadvantage in warfare. That is when his valuation of the rent is sufficiently high compared to that of the prey. © Springer-Verlag 2009.