Regulation and Rent Seeking

Sub-Saharan Africa is witness to the unceasing imposition of unenforceable counterproductive regulations, to who's ultimate benefit one may ask? Pius Fischer in his book Rent-Seeking,Institutions and Reforms in Africa "...identifies rent-seeking behaviour as one of the main causes of poor economic performance, observed, among other places, in many countries of Africa. Rent-seeking describes the ability to capture incomes without producing output or making a productive contribution. Since rent-seekers are often an integral part of an ailing economy and resist the adoption of reforms,understanding and anticipating rent-seeking behaviour is crucial for designing more adequate and effective policy reforms..."A world bank policy paper asserts "...an autocrat who seeks to maximize personal financial return favors an inefficiently large public sector and distorts other public sector priorities more than does an autocrat who seeks to maximize national income. However, if civil servants and public officials are also venal, the ruler will not favor so large a government..."