The quest for benefit from existing wealth or by seeking privileged benefit through influence over policy is known as rent seeking. Much rent seeking activity involves government and political decisions and is therefore in the domain of political econo

The Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation in Washington, D.C., presents the full text of an article entitled "Rent Seeking and Economic Growth: Evidence from the States," written by Harold J. Brumm. The article was published in the Spring/Summer 1999 issue of "The Cato Journal." The author discusses the extent to which economic growth is affected by rent seeking, particularly data related to the issue for the 48 contiguous states. The study finds the real gross state product (GSP) per capita to be negatively correlated with the initial level of real GSP per capita, the burden of state tax structure, and the level of rent-seeking activity in the state.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,7, Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (Professur für Volkswirtschaftslehre, insb. Finanzwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: This paper addresses a ma jor paradox of the economic world, the seemingly negative impact of wealth in form of natural resources and development aid on growth. In the last 50 years a striking discrepancy in the economic performance of countries blessed by massive windfall gains became obvious. Robust empirical evidence was produced showing an inverse relation of both natural resources and development aid on economic growth. Regressions involving migrant's remittances did also yield ambiguous results under certain conditions. I try to embrace all windfall gains under the notion of "Easy Rents", characterised by easy generation of, easy access to and easy control over the abundant monetary assets. The influence of the rents is proposed to work through biased price distortions, induced by sectoral competition, rent-seeking and \bad" economic policy, creating unfavourable conditions for the growth-driving tradables sector. The conducted research and empirical testing indicates the appreciation of relative prices caused by political and economic disturbance. Following the results, a strong tendency of "Easy Rents" to exert deteriorating influence on a economy seems to be in place.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,7, Helmut Schmidt University - University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (Professur für Volkswirtschaftslehre, insb. Finanzwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: This paper addresses a ma jor paradox of the economic world, the seemingly negative impact of wealth in form of natural resources and development aid on growth. In the last 50 years a striking discrepancy in the economic performance of countries blessed by massive windfall gains became obvious. Robust empirical evidence was produced showing an inverse relation of both natural resources and development aid on economic growth. Regressions involving migrant's remittances did also yield ambiguous results under certain conditions. I try to embrace all windfall gains under the notion of "Easy Rents", characterised by easy generation of, easy access to and easy control over the abundant monetary assets. The influence of the rents is proposed to work through biased price distortions, induced by sectoral competition, rent-seeking and \bad" economic policy, creating unfavourable conditions for the growth-driving tradables sector. The conducted research and empirical testing indicates the appreciation of relative prices caused by political and economic disturbance. Following the results, a strong tendency of "Easy Rents" to exert deteriorating influence on a economy seems to be in place.