CONCEPTS OF RENT AND RENT-SEEEKING IN ECONOMIC SCIENCE: FEATURES AND DYNAMICS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to structure the main problems faced by the modern theory of rent-oriented behavior. Subject of the research is based on a review of various approaches to the content of the "rent" category in foreign scientific literature, to consider the genesis of the concept of rent-seeking. As a result, the legitimacy of the distinction between the concepts of "rent-oriented behavior" and "rent-seeking" is substantiated. The analysis of modern Russian scientific literature revealed the presence of mutually exclusive approaches of Russian researchers to the content of the annuity category. The multidirectionality of studies of Russian and foreign authors on rental issues, which is the reason for the “irreducibility” of the dominant theory of rent-seeking and the theory of rental relations in Russia, is shown. Attempts to integrate the concepts of rent and rent-seeking in the framework of a unified theory are considered. In conclusion, the authors propose their own definition of the category of rent based on the location of the subject of appropriation in the socio-economic space. The presented definition is aimed at a constructive solution to the problem of “irreducibility” of the dominant concepts of rent and rent-oriented behavior. A side result was the formulation of the problem of establishing the coordinate systems of the political and institutional and economic space.