Mapping modern economic rents: the good, the bad, and the grey areas
梳理了古典政治经济学、制度学派、新古典和凯恩斯关于租金的理论，结合实证证据描绘现代租金的典型特征，并区分促进创新的“好租金”与导致停滞和不平等的“坏租金”，为租金理论提出新研究议程。
Abstract There is increasing consensus that modern capitalist economies suffer from excessive rent extraction in both financial and real economy sectors. However, scholars have yet to develop a coherent analytical framework for identifying the common characteristics of modern economic rents. In particular, there has been little attention paid to distinguishing ‘good’ rents—key to innovation and growth—from ‘bad’ forms which contribute to economic stagnation and inequalities of wealth and income. This paper takes some first steps in this direction. We first review the existing rent theory most pertinent to this distinction, including classical political economy, the early twentieth century institutionalists, neoclassical perspectives and Keynes’s analysis of financial rentiers. Secondly, we map and conceptualise some key stylised features of modern rents, drawing on descriptive empirical evidence. We then identify the key questions that these developments raise for rent theory, elaborating a new research and policy agenda.