rent-seeking
Americannoun
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the act or process of using one’s assets and resources to increase one’s share of existing wealth without creating new wealth.
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(specifically) the act or process of exploiting the political process or manipulating the economic environment to increase one’s revenue or profits.
Rent-seeking by lobbyists succeeded in obtaining favorable tariff treatment for the company’s exports.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of rent-seeking
First recorded in 1970–75; (economic) rent + seeking
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But there is a vast literature showing that, especially in non-pharmaceutical areas, they are also increasingly misused as barriers to entry and toll booths for rent seeking.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 11, 2015
It relies upon there being rent seeking: but if there’s no rent seeking then their argument fails.
From Forbes • Nov. 1, 2014
We would like new systems to grow up that will abolish or diminish cronyism and rent seeking in the economy.
From Forbes • May 27, 2014
This sort of "rent seeking" is visible in every such society.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 26, 2013
On the contrary, much of this gain was "rent seeking", not creating new wealth but taking it from others; a modern wild west.
From The Guardian • Jul. 13, 2012
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
