Monday, June 23, 2003

Two sample questions from previous a Negotiation Analysis final exam: 1.  "Homan's Law" suggests that bundling issues will result in better outcomes for both parties.  However, bundling issues is not always appropriate.  Give two conceptually distinct reasons why a rational negotiator might choose not to bundle issues.  Illustrate each with an example. 2.  The US government has a long-standing policy of gathering and disseminating geological information on drilling tracts prior to auction.  (Former) Secretary of the Interior James Watt moved to hold lease auctions without the usual government-sponsored geological surveys.  Evaluate this move.   11:13:07 PM    comment []

A beautiful passage from Thomas Schelling's 1960 classic "An Essay on Bargaining", published in Strategy of Conflict: There is, however, an outcome; and if we cannot find it in the logic of the situation we many find it in the tactics employed.  The purpose of this chapter is to call attention to an important class of tactics, of a kind that is peculiarly appropriate to the logic of indeterminate situations.  The essence of these tactics is some voluntary but irreversible sacrifice of freedom of choice.  They rest on the paradox that the power to constrain an adversary may depend on the power to bind oneself; that, in bargaining, weakness is often strength, freedom may be freedom to capitulate, and to burn bridges behind one may suffice to undo an opponent.   4:33:18 PM    comment []