TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grossman,Herschel I.
TI  - "Make Us a King": Anarchy, Predation, and the State
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6289
PY  - 1997
Y2  - November 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6289
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6289.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Herschel Grossman
Department of Economics
Box B
Brown University
Providence, RI  02912
Tel: 401/863-2606
Fax: 401/863-1970
AB  - In order to enforce a collective choice to allocate resource to guarding against predators producers must subject themselves to the state's sovereign power to tax and to spend.  But these sovereign powers in hand the state can exploit the producers by taxing and spending for its" own purposes.  Using a general equilibrium model in which people can choose to be either" producers or predators, this paper rationalizes the biblical request, Make us a king. analysis shows that, if the technology of predation is sufficiently good better for everyone, including both producers and potential predators even though a king maximizes the consumption of a ruling elite.
ER  -