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| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.New book explores key ideas of famed economist James Buchanan
Essential James Buchanan
The Essential James Buchanan includes a new book, accompanying website and animated videos, which spotlight the famed American economist.
Published by the Fraser Institute, the book (authored by Donald J. Boudreaux, professor of economics at George Mason University and Randall G. Holcombe, professor of economics at Florida State University) outlines Buchanan’s key insights on how people make decisions.
Born in rural Tennessee in 1919, from an early age Buchanan developed a deep skepticism of elites and political power. He earned a PhD in economics at the University of Chicago.
He taught at several universities in the United States including the University of Virginia before settling into George Mason University in 1983 where he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his book The Calculus of Consent (co-authored with Gordon Tullock more than 20 years earlier). Buchanan’s work evolved into an entire field of economics known as “public choice” and reflects his deep contributions to economic understanding.
Buchanan retired from George Mason in 1999 but continued to conduct seminars for graduate students. He died in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2013 after a brief illness at the age of 93.
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Donald Boudreaux
Professor of Economics, George Mason UniversityDonald J. Boudreaux is a Professor of Economics and former Economics Department Chair at George Mason University and a SeniorFellow with the Fraser Institute. He is also a Senior Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and holds the Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Auburn University and law degree from the University of Virginia.Professor Boudreaux is committed to making economics more accessible to a wider audience, and he has lectured across the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe on a wide variety of topics, including the nature of law, antitrust law and economics, and international trade. He is published in a variety of newspapers and journals, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and The Supreme Court Economic Review and writes a blog (with Russell Roberts) called Café Hayek, cafehayek.com.… Read more -
Randall Holcombe
DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics, Florida State University.Randall G. Holcombe is DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in economics fromVirginia Tech, and taught at Texas A&M University and at Auburn University prior to coming to Florida State in 1988. Prof. Holcombe is also Senior Fellow at the James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee-based think tank that specializes in issues facing state governments, and is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California. He served on Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors from 2000 to 2006, and is past president of the Public Choice Society and the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics. Prof. Holcombe is the author of twenty books and more than 200 articles published in academic and professional journals. His books include Political Capitalism: How Economic and Political Power Is Made and Maintained (2018) and Coordination, Cooperation, and Control: The Evolution of Economic and Political Power (2020).… Read more