Economics from the Outside In: "Better than Plowing" and Beyond (Volume 17)

Texas A&M University Economics Series

by James M. Buchanan

Nobel laureate in economics James Buchanan has been called—and indeed, calls himself—an outsider in American economics. Original and even unorthodox in his pioneering contributions to public choice theory and variously revered or berated for his influence on the economic policies that took hold in the Reagan years, he has stimulated a productive vein of economic inquiry and an important strain of public policy.

First published in 1992 under the title Better Than Plowing And Other Personal Essays, this collection of autobiographic writings was hailed as engaging, honest, and fascinating. The four new chapters of the present volume fill some gaps in his earlier reflections and add valuable assessments of the roots of his academic work.

Economics from the Outside In provides a fascinating look at the humble origins and academic development of a recipient of the Nobel Prize, the intellectual underpinnings of a key American economic policy, and the role of the academician in today's society.

Genres: Economics

254 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2007

About the author

American economist known for his work on public choice theory, for which in 1986 he received the Nobel Memorial Prize. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy. He was a Member of the Board of Advisors of The Independent Institute, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, and professor at George Mason University.
Buchanan was the founder of a new Virginia school of political economy. He taught at the University of Virginia—where he founded the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression—UCLA, Florida State University, the University of Tennessee, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he founded the Center for the Study of Public Choice (CSPC). In 1983 a conflict with Economics Department head Daniel M. Orr came to a head and Buchanan took the CSPC to its new home at George Mason University. In 1988 Buchanan returned to Hawaii for the first time since the War and gave a series of lectures later published by the University Press. In 2001 Buchanan received an honorary doctoral degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquín, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, for his contribution to economics.