The battle of the sexes over the distribution of male surplus

Myrna Wooders and Hugo van den Berg

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: Female primates carry and nurse the fetus, and thus have the first responsibility for rearing the offspring. Assuming males are at least equally adept at obtaining food, males might either share surplus food with females or consume the food themselves. The distribution of this surplus is the subject of a battle of the sexes. If females succeed in obtaining a large share of the surplus, then there is little size dimorphism between males and females; otherwise males might use the surplus themselves to become larger and stronger, and to engage in sexual competition with other males. Besides competing with males, females may compete with each other. Dependency may coincide with sexual competitiveness (sexiness). This paper introduces these ideas in a game theoretic setting and derives a simple bound, called the ‘female condition, on the male ‘sexiness’ required for a nonsupportive strategy to be worthwhile.

Keywords: EVOLUTION; BATTLE OF THE SEXES; MALE PARENTAL SUPPORT; SEXUAL SIZE; DIMORPHISM; FEMALE DEPENDENCY; POLYGYNY (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The battle of the sexes over the distribution of male surplus (2001)
Working Paper: The battle of the sexes over the distribution of male surplus (2001)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:610

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