The connection and difference between rent-seeking and corruption:
Rent-seeking and corruption are always two different concepts. First, their actors are different. Corruption is always associated with a certain amount of power. Not everyone can become a "corruptor". Only those who hold power can become corrupt. In the process of power-money transactions, the supply side of the power market is officials, and the demand side is interest groups as rent-seekers. The equilibrium price is the price of rent. Rent seekers use money or goods in exchange for power that already exists in the hands of the corrupt or is designed for profit. After the exchange activity is over, "money" and "power" change positions. Rent-seekers obtain power guarantees that can bring them greater benefits, while corrupt people satisfy their own desires through transactions. Corruption and rent-seeking are both The main actors constitute the supply and demand sides of the rights product market. In addition, it should be noted that rent-seeking activities may not result in a waste of resources. This is the biggest difference between rent-seeking and corruption. Rent-seeking activities can take legal or illegal forms. Legal forms of activities include companies seeking preferential treatment from the government and using special policies to maintain their exclusive monopoly position. Illegal behaviors include giving and receiving bribes. A large number of empirical facts tell us that if the purpose of rent-seeking activities is to change the inefficient property rights structure and promote changes in the existing distribution of property rights, the result of this change may be meaningful or meaningful to society. Desirable results. The most obvious example is the formation of the patent protection system. Inventors establish patent system protection by lobbying the government and other methods in order to obtain a monopoly on patented results within a certain period of time. This process cannot be seen as a waste of resources, but the price that must be paid for technological progress. If a huge amount of capital is invested in creation and invention, everyone can copy the results, and the inventor cannot enjoy the monopoly profits brought by his invention within a certain period of time. The inventor loses the interest incentives for development and creation, and creates inventions. The activities will be ignored, which ultimately affects the progress of science and technology and the improvement of social welfare. It can be seen that rent-seeking activities do not necessarily mean a waste of resources. But corruption is different. It not only desecrates public trust and damages social fairness, but also erodes social capital, wastes resources and reduces efficiency. Its harm cannot be ignored. According to estimates by relevant sources, in the second half of the 1990s, the average annual economic losses and consumer welfare losses caused by various corrupt practices reached 987.5 to 1257 billion yuan, accounting for 13.2 to 16.8 of the country's total GDP. "Reform in a sense It can be said that there is a competition between efficiency and corruption."