Wooders, Myrna Holtz and Berg, Hugo van den (2001) The battle of the sexes over distribution of male surplus. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick, Department of Economics. Warwick economic research papers (No.610).

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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 the 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 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 on the male ‘sexiness’ required for a nonsupportive strategy to be worthwhile.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Mathematics Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Sex role, Sexual division of labor, Game theory, Evolution (Biology), Polygyny, Fathers
Series Name:	Warwick economic research papers
Publisher:	University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Official Date:	21 November 2001
Dates:	Date Event 21 November 2001 Published
Number:	No.610
Number of Pages:	11
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access

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