谁知道如何抑制“寻租”行为？

你可以通过创造财富或掠夺他人创造的财富而致富。非法掠夺他人的财富，叫做盗窃或者欺诈。而合法掠夺他人财富的行径，经济学家称之为寻租。Rent-seeking takes many forms. On Europe"s oldest highway, the Rhine river, the castles on rocky outcrops date from the time when bandits with aristocratic titles extracted tolls from passing traffic. In poor countries the focus of political and business life is often rent-seeking rather than wealth creation. That helps explain why some countries are rich and others poor.寻租有许多种形式。在欧洲最古老的交通要道莱茵河上，屹立在两边岩岸上的城堡，可以追溯到久远的时期那时候，顶着贵族头衔的强盗们向过往船只收取通行费。在贫穷国家，政治及商业生活的重点往往是寻租，而非创造财富。这有助于解释为何有些国家富裕、而有些国家贫穷。Rent-seeking drives the paradoxical resource curse. Oil or mineral wealth mostly reduces the population"s standard of living because it diverts effort and talent from wealth creation to rent-seeking. Sadly, foreign aid often has a similar effect.寻租造成了资源的诅咒这种怪现象。石油或矿业财富大多使人民的生活水准下降，因为它们把人们的才能和努力从创造财富转移到了寻租上。可悲的是，外国援助往往具有同样的效果。Rent-seeking can be effected through rake-offs on government contracts, or the appropriation of state assets by oligarchs and the relatives of politicians.寡头和官员的亲属可以通过从政府合同上拿回扣，或是侵占国家资产，来实现寻租。But in more advanced economies, rent-seeking takes more sophisticated forms. Instead of 10 per cent on arms sales, we have 7 per cent on new issues. Rents are often extracted indirectly from consumers rather than directly from government: as in protection from competition from foreign goods and new entrants, and the clamour for the extension of intellectual property rights. Rents can also be secured through overpaid employment in overmanned government activities.但在比较发达的经济体，寻租有着更为复杂的形式。我们不是从军售中抽取10%的回扣，而是通过增发货币获得7%的利益。租金往往从消费者身上间接获取，而非直接取自政府：如阻止外国商品和新进入者竞争的保护措施，以及要求延长知识产权有效期的呼声。此外，在人员臃肿的政府部门领取过高的薪水，也是获取租金的一种形式。Rent-seeking is found whenever economic power is concentrated – in the state, in large private business, in groups of co-operating and colluding firms. Private concentrations of economic power tend to be self-reinforcing. This problem was widely recognised in America"s gilded age. The well-founded fear was that the new mega-rich – the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts – would use their wealth to enhance their political influence and grow their economic power, subverting both the market and democracy. Today it is Russia that exemplifies this problem.凡是经济权力集中的地方，无论是政府、大型私人企业，还是由串通合作的公司组成的团体中，都会发现寻租行为。在私人领域，经济权力集中往往具有自我加强的特点。在美国的镀金时代，人们就已经普遍认识到这一问题。人们有理由担心，洛克菲勒(Rockefeller)、卡内基(Carnegie)和范德比尔特(Vanderbilt)等新巨富家族可能利用自身的财力，扩大自己的政治影响力和经济权力，把市场和民主踩在脚下。如今的俄罗斯又成了这方面的例证。But America has a new generation of rent-seekers. The modern equivalents of castles on the Rhine are first-class lounges and corporate jets. Their occupants are investment bankers and corporate executives.但美国已出现了新一代寻租者。现代的头等舱候机室和公司商务飞机，就相当于古代莱茵河两岸的城堡。它们的使用者是投资银行家和企业高管。Control of rent-seeking requires decentralisation of economic power. These policies involve limits on the economic role of the state; constraints on the concentration of economic power in large business; constant vigilance at the boundaries between governm