Rent seeking in French overseas territories: Stylized facts and cumulative mechanisms

This article analyses the rent-seeking process in small, remote economies, considering the case of the French overseas territories. We first present stylized facts about the functioning of these economies and societies. We particularly show how these facts combine themselves to create economies wherein most of the actors depend on protection and rents. A theoretical model is further presented that explains the - otherwise apparently weird - alliance between labour and capital to support protection demands, founding endemic rent seeking behaviours.