1) I highly disagree with your point about the impact of economic rents on economic growth and development. As I mentioned in our previous discussion in “Negah-e-Azad”, depending on the manner they are distributed, rents can be either developmental or anti-developmental. Let me clarify my argument with some examples:

A: As I mentioned before, developmental states in East Asia such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand managed to industrialise their economies by following industrial polices which distributed rents to their “elites” (Khan et al, 2000). For instance, governments in this region gave cheap credit and export subsidies to their domestic producers and also regulated FDI (Kohli, 2004). In addition, states in China and Vietnam, which are today’s success stories in development, play an active role in the economy through formulating industrial policies. For instance, government of China provides its domestic firms with cheap land and regulates the FDI rules in a way that pushes the foreign firms towards creating joint ventures with Chinese firms mainly for facilitating the transfer of technology (The Economist, 2007). Thus, rents can be developmental if they are distributed in a productive way. Political and economic institutions can highly affect the manner in which rents are distributed. For instance, rents are often distributed in a VERY unproductive way in developing countries that have democratic institutions since politicians use rents to buy political support instead of nurturing productive economic sectors (note that all developmental states had autocratic governments).

B: Rents in the form of high tariff barriers are not necessarily anti-developmental. For instance, during the 19th century, Britain, Germany and the US successfully used high tariff barriers and import quotas as developmental instruments for strengthening their domestic industries. Similarly, in the 2oth century states in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand transformed their economies from agrarian into industrial by protecting their infant industries (Chang, 2002). However, it is vital to mention that the form of protectionism used in the above cases was different from “import substitution strategies” adopted by developing countries after WWII (Krugman & Obstfled, 2006).

2) Natural resource rents are not necessarily anti-developmental. In fact, as Collier (2007) mentions, natural resource rents become a curse IF they are discovered at a time when the effective economic and political institutions are NOT in place. For instance, government of Botswana invests the revenues derived from selling natural resources (diamond) in a productive way mainly because these resources were discovered in the country at the time when the effective political institutions in Botswana were already in place. Norway constitutes the other example.

References
Chang, H (2002), Kicking away the ladder, Anthem Press.

Collier, P (2007), The bottom billion, Oxford University Press.

Khan et al (2000), Rents, rent-seeking and economic development: Theory and evidence in East Asia, Cambridge University Press

Kohli, Atul (2004), State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery, Cambridge University Press.

Krugman, P & M, Obstfled (2006), International Economics: Theory and Policy, Pearson Education.

The Economist (2007), A workers› manifesto for China, October 11th.
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اما راجع به نکاتت:
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2- در مورد رانتهای ناشی از منابع طبیعی هم بله این رانتها لزوما ضد توسعه نیستند ولی بسترهایی را فراهم می کنند که همانطور که اشاره کرده ای اگر نهادهای قدرتمندی به وجود نیامده باشند، براحتی می توانند فرآیند توسعه را معکوس کنند. در این مورد هم با تو موافقم. ولی باز در این مقاله صرفا قصد توضیح رانت و ادبیات مربوط به آن را داشته ام که در ادامه این مقالات به این مباحث هم اشاره می کنم ولی تذکراتت خیلی روشنگر بود.
3- آقا چرا پس تماس نگرفتی!!؟ البته من این چند روز را نیستم ولی هفته بعد اوایل هفته همان ساعت هایی که گفتم خوب است. خوشحال می شوم