Study On The Government Rent-seeking Of The Chinese Real Estate Market From The Public Choice

The Government rent-seeking is a special economic phenomenon existed inside the government behavior. The local governmental agencies seek for economic rents by means of legal or illegal ways for their own benefits; they destroy the current systems with their administrative power in hands in order to achieve the maxim um benefits for themselves or for the governmental agencies. The Government rent-seeking has a negative effect for the economic development and social stability, which results in a lower efficiency for the governmental administration; which reduces the credibility of the government; which interferes the establishment of the Chinese socialist market economy. The paper took the Chinese real estate market as an example, from the perspective of the theory of public choice, explored the issue of the government rent-seeking existed inside the Chinese real estate market in order to enunciate the issue of the government rent-seeking and finding out the solutions for it.The government rent-seeking phenomenon in the Chinese real estate market in recent years has become more and more serious, which restricts the economic development of the Chinese real estate. Rent-seeking activities in the real estate market is a competitive activities in an unproductive way, it is a net loss of social welfare. From the perspective of the theory of public choice, the paper found out that the issue of the government rent-seeking mainly includes: rent-seeking in the process of land leasing; rent-seeking existed inside the process of regulating the policies for the estate market and rent-seeking existed inside affordable housing projects. Analyzed by the theory of public choice, the phenomenon of the government rent-seeking has been existed so popularly, which mainly due to that "economic man" has a motivation for profit: e.g. the Chinese government at its local levels seek for GDP increases irrationally; the government officials have an interest preferences. Another reason for the government rent-seeking is the government failure in public policy: e.g. improper interfere by the government and the imperfect system in the real estate market. With the advanced experiences of the developed countries, the paper got the following researching conclusions: to pursue the interests based on the "economic man" motivation is the main part of the government rent-seeking, which results in a great loss of the social wealth. Therefore the countermeasures for preventing the government rent-seeking in the estate market should includes the following aspects: firstly, to deal with the relationship between the government and the market in order to reduce the possibility of rent-seeking; the secondly, establish the related laws and regulations in order to hinder the motivation for profit-seeking of the “economic man”; the thirdly, to strengthen the system construction, to promote fair and equitable real estate market; the fourth, to improve the relevant policies, to promote the rational allocation of resources in the real estate market; at last, to strengthen public administration ethics and to improve the quality of administrative staff.