Portrait of James M. Buchanan

James M. Buchanan

1919 – 2013

In 1986, James M. Buchanan (1919-2013) was awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Universally respected as one of the founders of the “public choice” school of economics, he authored numerous books and hundreds of articles in the areas of public finance, public choice, constitutional economics and economic philosophy.

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He is best known for such works as The Calculus of Consent, The Limits of Liberty, The Power to Tax, and The Reason of Rules. Buchanan devoted himself to the study of the contractural and constitutional basis for the theory of economic and political decision making.

See the Liberty Matters online discussion of James Buchanan: An Assessment

Read the Liberty Classic Lessons and Challenges in The Limits of Liberty and What Should Economists Do? An Appreciation from Econlib

See also at our sister website Econlib:

  • the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics entry on Buchanan

Watch the OLL Videos The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with James M. Buchanan (Part 1) and The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with James M. Buchanan (Part 2)

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