This paper addresses the following question: Does characterizing the state to be an agent of its citizens provide a useful “as if” framework for positive analysis of economic policy? Or, can we understand economic policy only by explicitly characterizing the state as proprietary, the...

This paper analyses a general-equilibrium model of the complementarity between economic competition for the allegiance of subjects and military competition for the control of land. In our model economic competition between rival rulers for the allegiance of subjects results in their subjects,...