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Abstract
Identification and measurement of the social costs of rent-seeking (and associated rentdefending
and rent-avoiding) in projects in developing countries have been neglected.
This is in spite !1f a voluminous literature on the methodology and practice of project
evaluation, an.i intense scrutiny of project activities by agencies responsible for their
funding. The potential for social costs from rent-seeking in such projects is explored in
this paper, with some illustrative ex,mples from agriculture"'based rural development
projects. Other social costs indirectly resulting from rent-seeking activities are also
described.