Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Rent seeking : an overview. Rent seeking : the problem of definitions ; Rent seeking -- 2. More on efficient rent seeking. Efficient rent-seeking revisited ; Back to the bog ; Another part of the swamp ; Still somewhat muddy : a comment -- 3. The environments of rent seeking. Rent seeking as a negative-sum game ; Industrial organization and rent seeking in dictatorships -- Transitional gains and transfers ; Rents and rent-seeking ; Why did the industrial revolution occur in England? ; Rent seeking and tax reform ; Rent-seeking and the law ; Excise taxation in the rent-seeking society -- 4. The cost of rent seeking. The costs of rent seeking : a metaphysical problem ; Rents, ignorance, and ideology ; Efficient rent seeking, diseconomies of scale, public goods, and morality ; Are rents fully dissipated? ; Where is the rectangle? ; Which rectangle? -- 5. Exchanges and contracts -- 6. Future directions for rent-seeking research.