Although the holdout problem is an established part of legal and economic lore, the exact source of the problem is not well understood. It is usually attributed to high transaction costs or bargaining power on the part of sellers. To isolate the essential features of the problem, we consider the...

The holdout problem is commonly cited as the justification for eminent domain, but the nature of the problem is not well understood. This article models the holdout problem in a bargaining framework, where a developer seeks to acquire several parcels of land for a large-scale development. We...