We show that rent-seeking contests with shortlisting have comparative stati
c properties which depend on the stage of the contest. By generalising the
argument in Amegashie (1997), we show that well-known comparative static re
sults in single-stage rent-seeking contests do not necessarily carry over t
o contests with shortlisting. The analysis suggests that policy prescriptio
ns for reducing rent-seeking expenditures in contests with shortlisting can
not be given without taking into account the stage of the contest. We also
extend the model in Amegashie (1997) to the case of unequal class sizes. Fi
nally, the shortlisting method in Amegashie (1997) is compared with that in
Clark and Riis (1996).