THE SPECIFICATION OF THE PROBABILITY FUNCTIONS IN TULLOCKS RENT-SEEKING CONTEST

In his model of a rent-seeking contest, [Tullock, G., 1980. Efficient rent seeking. In: Buchanan, J.M., Tollison, R.D., Tullock, G. (Eds.), Toward a theory of the rent-seeking society. Texas A and M University Press, College Station, pp. 97-112] uses a simple concrete specificati on for the probability functions which determine the probability that a player wins the contest, given the bids made by the players. We disc uss in general terms a set of conditions that can be imposed on probab ility functions in this game. Next, we show that the specification cho sen by Tullock is the unique one that satisfies these conditions. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.