The Impact of James Buchanan on My Career and the Economics Profession

摘要

The career of Buchanan provides the foundation for how the economics profession can move forward and become more relevant. Economic analysis is equally applicable to market and political decision making. It can help scholars better identify the strengths and weaknesses of both. The options are always between the realities of market performance versus the realities of public sector alternatives. They are never between the realities of market sector outcomes relative to idealized public sector performance. There is both market failure and government failure. It is long past time that this realism is incorporated into mainstream economics. George Stigler once remarked that a person who considers only market failure is like the judge of a singing contest who immediately declares the second contestant the winner after hearing the performance of the first. This is precisely what happens when mainstream economics treats government as a corrective device and continues to exclude public choice analysis. It is time for the profession to consider the second singer.