Ruhr Economic Papers

University of Duisburg-Essen, 02/2013, 15 S./p., 8 Euro, ISBN 978-3-86788-458-7 DOI: 10.4419/86788458

Abstract

In the context of international bargaining, standard models predict that a shift in military power can cause preventive war because it changes the relative bargaining position between states. We find that shifts in military power are not the only cause of war under commitment problems and that commitment problems per se are not necessarily a cause of war even if the relative bargaining position changes substantially.