Rent-seeking

In many market-oriented economies, government restrictions upon economic activity are pervasive facts of life. These restrictions give rise to rents of a variety of forms, and people often compete for the rents. Sometimes, such competition is perfectly legal. In other instances, rent seeking takes other forms, such as bribery, corruption, smuggling, and black markets.

Source: wiktionary

It is almost certain that ‘rent-seeking’ would be a significant factor in a capitalist economy where the government encourages cartelization or confers ‘a leading sector’ role on any sector.

Source: wiktionary

People find it privately rational to invest resources in efforts to secure differentially favored access to the economic power inherent in bureaucratic discretion. This rent seeking on the part of those who compete for the scarce access to valued goods ... represents wasteful investment on the part of all people who are unsuccessful in the competitive effort.

Source: wiktionary

One importance consequence of that fact is that efforts to restrict emissions may encourage the affected parties to seek regulatory provisions that provide them with tax exemptions or access to permits—that is, they may engage in rent-seeking behavior. For example, fossil fuel suppliers might advocate a system in which they were given emissions permits free of charge—so that they would receive the entire scarcity rent resulting from the emissions limits.

Source: wiktionary