The Optimal Size for a Minority

Hillel Rapoport () and Avi Weiss

No 284, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate a setting in which members of a population, bifurcated into a majority and a minority, transact with randomly matched partners. All members are uniformly altruistic, and each transaction can be carried out cooperatively or through a market mechanism, with cooperative transactions saving on transaction costs. Externalities are introduced, whereby cooperation by members of one group and the relative size of that group, affect the incentives to cooperate by members of the other group. Under these conditions, we determine the optimal size of the minority from the minority’s perspective, and consider the conditions under which such a size might be attained. The model provides insights on social conflicts both between groups and within groups.

Keywords: social conflicts; minorities; ethnic groups; religious groups; Altruism; relative group size (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 J15 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2001-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2003, 52 (1), 27-45

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp284.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The optimal size for a minority (2003)
Working Paper: The Optimal Size for a Minority (2001)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp284

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().