Tag Archives: economic rent

Much government regulation does not fit the logic of Stigler’s theory of anti-competitive regulatory capture. In a new book, Steven Vogel of Berkeley argues that the theory of regulation needs to account for the phenomenon of captured regulators bent on deregulating—and that the critical consideration facing regulators is no longer how to enhance competition, but how different governance models favor different actors. Rent capture.ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University...

The reeducation of a Reaganomics supply-sider. It's the rent, stupid.Michael HudsonFor Economic Truth Turn To Michael HudsonPaul Craig Roberts

I kid to this previously, but it was in a list of links. It is important enough to give it its own post.Hudson at his best. It's a must-read. Longish, so save it for the weekend if time is an issue.Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism“Creating Wealth” through Debt: The West’s Finance-Capitalist Road— To be delivered at the Peking University, School of Marxist Studies, May 5-6, 2018Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term...

Must-read in full. It's short and to the point.The meaning of "value" is one of the most pertinent questions in economics and political economy. Michael Hudson has been emphasizing this for some time, as have Marxists and Marxian. Consideration of value of other than as price revealed in competitive markets is ruled out in conventional economics by methodological assumptions. What we value and how we value it is one of the most contested, misunderstood and important ideas in economics....

President Trump presented his infrastructure plan last week. If you’re keen on the idea of out-of-control privatized utilities gouging customers and manipulating energy markets, or consortia building overpriced, expensive toll roads (until they go bust), then you’ll love the president’s proposals. His mooted public-private partnerships are another variant of socialism for the rich and free market discipline for the rest of us. PPPs are like a religion that offers its adherents the promise...

Robert Vienneau approaches thinking about Marx in relation to previous economists from the perspective of the different distinctions that Marx drew. This is entirely consistent with Marx's training in philosophy, since a cardinal principle of philosophical method is overcoming apparent difficulties in expression by drawing distinctions. This involves changing the grain of the model. A grainy model has the advantage of simplicity but risks the disadvantage of being too simplistic an...

These new facts are particularly puzzling from the point of view of the standard neoclassical economic model, in which markets are perfectly competitive. In this view, profits should not persist over the long run, let alone enable the owners of corporations to increase their share of income over time. The standard model, however, cannot address many of the fundamental changes that have occurred in the U.S. economy over the past 40 years.In order to explain these new trends, I and my...

In an interview with ProMarket, Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton talks about the connection of rent-seeking and monopolization to rising inequality. ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessAngus Deaton on the Under-Discussed Driver of Inequality in America: “It’s Easier for Rent-Seekers to Affect Policy Here Than In Much of Europe” Asher Schechter

Good article about economics, power and ethics, with which I would substantially agree as a philosopher.  However, Professor Ruccio passes over the economic aspect of power, which bestows the ability to extract economic rent.  Power results in asymmetries that vitiate perfect competition and generate imperfect markets. This allows for rent extraction. Rent goes to the powerful, that is, the owners of real and financial capital, to the disadvantage of those lacking power, basically...

Skyrocketing land rent in the UK. In just two decades the market value of land has quadrupled, increasing recorded wealth by over £4 trillion. The driving force behind rising house prices — and the UK’s growing wealth — has been rapidly escalating land prices. For those who own property, this has provided enormous benefits.... Open DemocracyIt’s Time to Call the Housing Crisis What It Really Is: The Largest Transfer of Wealth in Living Memory Laurie Macfarlane