The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality

摘要

From Adam Smith's famous observation that people of the same trade cannot socialise even informally without the conversation turning to 'a conspiracy against the public' to George Stigler's equally famous observation that government regulation ultimately works to the advantage of business rather than consumers, economists have been aware that private interests will always be looking for opportunities to undermine the competitive economy. Under the influence of James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Mancur Olson and the Public Choice School the 'rent-seeking society' was more systematically investigated from the 1970s onwards with generally pessimistic conclusions concerning the likely effect of democratic public choice processes on the efficiency of resource allocation.