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Human Capital, Rent Seeking, and a Transition from Stagnation to Growth

Author

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  • Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter

    (York University)

  • Tangerås, Thomas

    (The Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

Abstract

We present a growth model where agents divide time between rent seeking in the form of resource competition; and working in a human capital sector, interpreted as trade or manufacturing. Rent seeking exerts negative externalities on the productivity of human capital, generating multiple steady states. Adding shocks to the model -- in the form of violence in the rent seeking process, and changes in the size of the contested resource base -- the model can replicate a long phase with stagnant incomes and high levels of rent seeking, interrupted by small failed growth spurts; this is eventually followed by a permanent transition to a sustained growth path where rent seeking vanishes in the limit. We illustrate the workings of the model with simulations and argue that the results, and what drives them, fit with some broad historical facts about growth, rent seeking, and the so-called natural resource curse.

Suggested Citation

  • Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter & Tangerås, Thomas, 2005. "Human Capital, Rent Seeking, and a Transition from Stagnation to Growth," Working Paper Series 656, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0656
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conflict; Long-Run Growth; Rent Seeking;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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