IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/car/carecp/09-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Rent Seeking on Economics Growth

Author

Abstract

This paper develops a model of political support which it links to economic growth. Governments gain support by creating wealth and also by creating rent, which gives rise to rent seeking, a major cause of inequality and poor economic performance, as well as a link between the economic and political systems. A low rent-seeking option maximizes support only if “inclusiveness,” as defined and measured here, is high. With low inclusiveness, state efforts to promote growth also promote rent seeking, and the latter effects are longer lasting—rent seeking crowds out innovation and new product R&D. Depending on comparative political advantage, the quest for political support can become the road to an inclusive polity, a kind of political invisible hand, or the road to serfdom.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard L. Carson, 2009. "The Effect of Rent Seeking on Economics Growth," Carleton Economic Papers 09-10, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 Dec 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:car:carecp:09-10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weitzman, Martin L, 1970. "Soviet Postwar Economic Growth and Capital-Labor Substitution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(4), pages 676-692, September.
    2. Angelopoulos, Konstantinos & Philippopoulos, Apostolis & Vassilatos, Vanghelis, 2009. "The social cost of rent seeking in Europe," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 280-299, September.
    3. Young, Alwyn, 1994. "Lessons from the East Asian NICS: A contrarian view," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 964-973, April.
    4. Aslund,Anders, 2002. "Building Capitalism," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521805254, September.
    5. David N. Laband & John P. Sophocleus, 1992. "An Estimate of Resource Expenditures on Transfer Activity in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 959-983.
    6. Milan W. Svolik, 2009. "Power Sharing and Leadership Dynamics in Authoritarian Regimes," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 477-494, April.
    7. Ignacio Del Rosal, 2011. "The Empirical Measurement Of Rent‐Seeking Costs," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 298-325, April.
    8. Acemoglu, Daron & Robinson, James A., 2001. "Inefficient Redistribution," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 649-661, September.
    9. Ma Salinas-Jiménez & Javier Salinas-Jiménez, 2011. "Corruption and total factor productivity: level or growth effects?," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 10(2), pages 109-128, August.
    10. Brendan K. Beare, 2008. "The Soviet Economic Decline Revisited," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 5(2), pages 135-144, May.
    11. Bart van Ark & Mary O'Mahoney & Marcel P. Timmer, 2008. "The Productivity Gap between Europe and the United States: Trends and Causes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 25-44, Winter.
    12. Easterly, William & Fischer, Stanley, 1995. "The Soviet Economic Decline," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 9(3), pages 341-371, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Carson, 0. "Inclusiveness, Growth, and Political Support," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 0, pages 1-19.
    2. Richard Carson, 2020. "Inclusiveness, Growth, and Political Support," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 557-575, October.
    3. Richard L. Carson, 2009. "Rent Seeking and Inclusiveness," Carleton Economic Papers 09-05, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 Dec 2016.
    4. Vladimir Popov, 2007. "Life Cycle of the Centrally Planned Economy: Why Soviet Growth Rates Peaked in the 1950s," Studies in Economic Transition, in: Saul Estrin & Grzegorz W. Kolodko & Milica Uvalic (ed.), Transition and Beyond, chapter 2, pages 35-57, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Vitor Melo & Stephen Miller, 2022. "Estimating the Effect of Rent-Seeking on income distribution: an analysis of U.S. States and Counties," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 99-114, July.
    6. repec:elg:eechap:15325_3 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Leonard Kukić, 2024. "Technical change and the postwar slowdown in Soviet economic growth in a long run perspective, 1885–2019," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 644-674, May.
    8. Roman M. Sheremeta, 2016. "Impulsive Behavior in Competition: Testing Theories of Overbidding in Rent-Seeking Contests," Working Papers 16-21, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    9. Michael Knoblach & Fabian Stöckl, 2020. "What Determines The Elasticity Of Substitution Between Capital And Labor? A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 847-875, September.
    10. Leonard Kukić, 2021. "The Nature Of Technological Failure: Patterns Of Biased Technical Change In Socialist Europe," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 895-925, July.
    11. Tamás Vonyó & Alexander Klein, 2019. "Why did socialist economies fail? The role of factor inputs reconsidered," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(1), pages 317-345, February.
    12. Dirk Bezemer & Uwe Dulleck & Paul Frijters, 2003. "Socialism, Capitalism, and Transition-Coordination of Economic Relations and Output Performance," Vienna Economics Papers 0305, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    13. Zuzana Brixiov?? & Ale?? Bul??r, 2002. "Growth Slowdown Under Central Planning: A Model of Poor Incentives," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 448, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    14. Leandro Prados de la Escosura & Tamás Vonyó & Ilya B. Voskoboynikov, 2021. "Accounting For Growth In History," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 655-669, July.
    15. Sergei Guriev & Barry W. Ickes, 2000. "Microeconomic Aspects of Economic Growth in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, 1950-2000," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 348, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    16. Minsoo Lee & MoonJoong Tcha, 2004. "The color of money: The effects of foreign direct investment on economic growth in transition economies," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 140(2), pages 211-229, June.
    17. Peter Drysdale & Yiping Huang, 1997. "Technological Catch‐Up and Economic Growth in East Asia and the Pacific," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 73(222), pages 201-211, September.
    18. Ilya B. Voskoboynikov, 2021. "Accounting for growth in the USSR and Russia, 1950–2012," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 870-894, July.
    19. Brixiova, Zuzana & Bulir, Ales, 2003. "Output performance under central planning: a model of poor incentives," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 27-39, March.
    20. Roberts, Bryan W. & Rodriguez, Alvaro, 1997. "Economic Growth under a Self-Interested Central Planner and Transition to a Market Economy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 121-139, April.
    21. Paweł Bukowski & Filip Novokmet, 2021. "Between communism and capitalism: long-term inequality in Poland, 1892–2015," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 187-239, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:car:carecp:09-10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Court Lindsay (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.