The Politics of Bargaining as a Group

A group bargains with an external party (the ‘agent’). At each date group members make a joint offer in exchange for a concession; they hold different values from an agreement and are uncertain about the agent’s resolve. We show that all group members favor more aggressive proposals than they would if they negotiated alone. These offers elicit more information about the agent’s resolve, reducing internal conflicts over the group’s negotiating strategy. To mitigate the consequent risk that negotiations fail, decisive group members give up their influence over proposals, successively consolidating all negotiation authority into the hands of a single member.