We model firms’ allocation of resources across surplus-creating (ie, productive) and surplus-appropriating (ie, rent-seeking) activities. Our model predicts that industry-wide technological advancements, such as recent progress in data collection and processing, induce a disproportionate and socially inefficient reallocation of resources toward surplus-appropriating activities. As technology improves, firms rely more on appropriation to obtain their profits, thereby endogenously reducing the impact of technological progress on economic progress and inflating the price of the resources used for both types of activities. Our theoretical insights shed light on the rise of high-frequency trading. (JEL D21, D24, G23, O33, O41)

中文翻译：

---

技术进步与寻租


我们对企业在剩余创造（即生产）和剩余占有（即寻租）活动中的资源配置进行建模。我们的模型预测，全行业的技术进步，例如数据收集和处理方面的最新进展，会导致资源向盈余挪用活动进行不成比例且社会效率低下的重新分配。随着技术的进步，企业更多地依赖拨款来获取利润，从而内生地减少了技术进步对经济进步的影响，并抬高了用于这两类活动的资源的价格。我们的理论见解揭示了高频交易的兴起。 (JEL D21、D24、G23、O33、O41)