Title: What is rent-seeking? Definition and meaning - Market Business News
Headings: What is rent-seeking? Definition and meaning
What is rent-seeking? Definition and meaning
Rent-seeking behaviors of lobbying
Rent-seeking licensing rackets
Rent-seeking in government
Video – Rent-Seeking – Definition and Meaning

Content: Civil servants who work in the tax office, for example, and solicit and extract bribes for coming to special arrangements with individuals or companies, or offer to look the other way, are guilty of rent-seeking. These bureaucrats are enriching themselves without contributing anything to the wealth of the nation. When a regulatory agency – which was first set up to protect consumers and police a certain industry – changes and eventually prioritizes the rights and benefits of the companies in that sector over those of consumers – this is known as regulatory capture and means that rent-seeking has raised its ugly head. A good way of appreciating what regulatory capture is, is to imagine a group of sheep farmers that sets up a Sheep-Protection Agency. The agency’s aim is to protect the sheep from wolves. However, after a few years, more and more wolves become members of the agency. Eventually, the protection and rights of wolves become more important for the agency than the protection and rights of sheep. Auburn University’s Glossary of Political Economy Terms says that rent-seeking behavior is: “The expenditure of resources in order to bring about an uncompensated transfer of goods or services from another person or persons to one’s self as the result of a “favorable” decision on some public policy.” “The term seems to have been coined (or at least popularized in contemporary political economy) by the economist Gordon Tullock.