The Political Economy of Buchanan's Samaritan's Dilemma

Marciano, Alain

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4145628

SSRN Journal

2022

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4145628

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The Political Economy of Buchanan's Samaritan's Dilemma

Alain Marciano

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2022

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“…InBuchanan 1975, The parasite has two strategies, "work" and "refuse to work" 3. Letho and Meadowcroft (2021) insist on how important were these off-diagonal outcomes, or asymmetrical equilibria, for Buchanan after a while Marciano (2022). shows that the samaritan's dilemma was present in Buchanan's work since the late 1950s 4.…”

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Sado-masochism in Buchanan’s Samaritan’s Dilemma: A Constitutional Perspective

Marciano

2022

Homo Oecon

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In this paper, we study the impact of altruism on an interaction between a samaritan and a recipient/parasite in the frame of Buchanan's samaritan 's dilemma (1975). We show that, as soon as altruism reaches a certain threshold, the equilibrium of the game corresponds to the situation Buchanan called a samaritan's dilemma. We also show that the Nash equilibrium reached for these levels of altruism is a Pareto-efficient outcome. Thus, the situation Buchanan characterized as a samaritan's dilemma is not a dilemma at all. Both players are satisfied with the situation as it is and need each other, up to the point of giving birth to a sado-masochistic equilibrium. We also show that this result holds if and only if the constitutional rules are given-either the ethical rules followed by the individuals, or the form of the game. This equilibrium could be avoided if the players adopted a constitutional perspective on the situation.

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Sado-masochism in Buchanan’s Samaritan’s Dilemma: A Constitutional Perspective

Marciano

2022

Homo Oecon

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The Political Economy of Buchanan's Samaritan's Dilemma

Cited by 1 publication

References 28 publications

Sado-masochism in Buchanan’s Samaritan’s Dilemma: A Constitutional Perspective

Sado-masochism in Buchanan’s Samaritan’s Dilemma: A Constitutional Perspective

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