Re: Rent seeking?

From: sinister (sinister_at_nospam.invalid)
Date: 09/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 22:52:42 GMT

"David Harmon" <source@netcom.com> wrote in message
news:41643433.65081125@news.west.earthlink.net...
>I have some idea of what "rent seeking" refers to in economics,
> although it is a bit tough to pin down.
>
> Why the F&*# is it called "rent seeking" though? It doesn't seem to
> have much to do with "rent".

That's a good question.

My impression is that "rent" started with the term "land rent," from income
on land (one of the three classical factors of production). This led to the
economic definition of "rent"---payments in excess of what's needed to keep
a factor in production. (This is connected to land rent, I assume, insofar
as there's nothing needed to keep land (apart from its improvements) in
production.) The economic definition of rent comprises things like monopoly
rents and the like, which I think subsume the sort of rents spoken of in the
phrase "rent-seeking".

I'd be interested in others' comments---I'm unsure of some of the
connections I'm attempting to draw above.

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