rent-seeking

Noun

rent-seeking (uncountable)

1. The attempt to profit by manipulating the economic or political environment, for example, by seeking governmental action that restricts entry into a market.
   • In many market-oriented economies, government restrictions upon economic activity are pervasive facts of life. These restrictions give rise to rents of a variety of forms, and people often compete for the rents. Sometimes, such competition is perfectly legal. In other instances, rent seeking takes...1974 June, Anne O[sborn] Krueger, “The Political Economy of the Rent-seeking Society”, in The American Economic Review, volume 64, page 291; reprinted in Roger D[ouglas] Congleton, Arye L. Hillman...
   • It is almost certain that ‘rent-seeking’ would be a significant factor in a capitalist economy where the government encourages cartelization or confers ‘a leading sector’ role on any sector.1990 July, Mukesh Eswaran, Ashok Kotwal, Demand Externality as an Impediment to Productivity Growth in LDC's (Discussion Papers of the Department of Economics (University of British Columbia); no....
2. The effort to increase one's share of wealth without doing something productive or adding value.
   • Ultimately, at the very end of the spectrum rent-seeking takes place in private social life, even though a delimitation critically depends on the society's 'subjective' definition of property rights and duties. It makes sense to define people begging on the street and knocking on doors as...2007, Pius Fischer, Rent-Seeking, Institutions and Reforms in Africa
   • Let us assume, then, that a wealthy eccentric has put up $100 as a prize for the special lottery between A and B. Note that the amount spent on lottery tickets is retained by the lottery, not added onto the prize. This makes the game equivalent to rent seeking, where resources are also wasted.2013, Gordon Tullock, “Efficient Rent Seeking”, in Alan Lockard, Gordon Tullock, editors, Efficient Rent-Seeking: Chronicle of an Intellectual Quagmire, page 5