关键词: 融资寻租, 资本错配, 全要素生产率

Abstract: The social and economic losses caused by rent-seeking have attracted more and more attention from policies and literature. This paper aims to study the mechanism of firms’ financial rent-seeking that distorts capital allocation and quantify the total factor productivity loss caused by it. Empirically, it uses the World Bank Business Environment Survey data and finds there is a positive correlation between financial rent-seeking and capital misallocation. The mechanism is that financial rent-seeking reduces the cost of capital use in firms. Theoretically, it expands the analysis framework of resource misallocation and total factor productivity, introduces firms’ financial rent-seeking, and treats it as the mechanism of capital misallocation. Model analysis shows that the higher the rent-seeking elasticity of capital prices, the more serious capital misallocation. Counterfactual calculation finds that the complete elimination of financial rent-seeking can increase total factor productivity by 81.6 percent. Optimizing firms’ financing environment is important to promote supply-side reform and achieve high-quality economic development.

Key words: Financial Rent Seeking, Capital Misallocation, Total Factor Productivity