An Analysis Of The Rent-Seeking Behavior In Government Procurement Of Our Country

The theory of rent-seeking has been a hot topic in the western economic society since the mid 20^th century. It is also one of the most challenging subjects in research. The behavior of rent-seeking is a common phenomenon in the market economic and shunting countries. However, it varies in degrees and scales in different fields, periods and countries.China is transforming from the traditional planned economics to the present market economics. During the transformation, the gradual social economic reform has averted the drastic turmoil in society, while stimulated more space for the corrupt activities of rent-seeking, especially in the sectors interfered by the government. Regarding those market economic countries, one of the important methods to interfere the national economic performance is that the government sets up public utilities through the fiscal income and expense. As an important approach of the fiscal expense management, the government procurement is capable of reaching the scale efficiency, saving the fiscal capital and reducing the trade expense, for it alternates the scattered procurement in the past into the current integrated one. The government procurement is very large in the fiscal expense. If it is not managed and supervised efficiently in the process of being spread all over the country, the government procurement is apt to produce more server waste in the public expense and result in the corruption of rent-seeking and monopoly.The behavior of rent-seeking is a non-productive one of the economic gambling, leading to the waste of social resources, repression of fair competitions, refusal of system creation, and resistance of social civilization. Meanwhile, the government procurement is an important method that the state can apply to enhance the fiscal expense management, increase the macro regulation ability and promote the marketization of the government consumption. Therefore, it is of both theoretical and practical significance to analyze the problem of rent-seeking in the government procurement and to probe into the methodology of supervising and controlling the behavior of rent-seeking.This paper starts with a review on the theory of rent-seeking, and proceeds with an analysis on the government procurement and the behavior of rent-seeking. Finally, suggestions are reached to renovate the problem of rent-seeking in the current government procurement. There are three parts in the paper. Chapter One is a general discussion of the definition and classification of rent-seeking, and the review of major theoretical schools of rent-seeking, and the system environment, cost and aftereffect of rent-seeking. Chapter Two focuses on the basic theory of the government procurement and expatiates on the current state of the government procurement in our country as well as the behavior of rent-seeking, including the causation, the evolution and the effect on the development of economics and society. Chapter Three begins from the background of China's access into WTO and the demand of developing socialist market economy, emphasizing the necessities of tightening the supervision of the behavior of rent-seeking in the government procurement. Solutions are advanced through the system creation, supervision mechanism perfection, deeper system reform and tighter moral education.