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Cost and Choice: An Inquiry in Economic Theory
While relatively short, Cost and Choice, according to Hartmut Kliemt in the foreword, “holds quite a central place in Buchanan’s work. For the fundamental economic notion of ‘cost’, or ‘opportunity cost’, is intimately related to the individualist and subjectivist perspective that is so essential to the Buchanan enterprise.”
To be sure, the Austrian school of economists enunciated similar views of cost decades before Buchanan, but Buchanan advances his theories by attempting to integrate his views into the orthodox classical and neoclassical framework.
When he published the book in 1969, Buchanan hoped that other scholars would follow him in researching the opportunity-cost concept and its applications. Unlike the theater of public policy, where Buchanan’s work is widely celebrated and influential, his important work on the issue of cost and choice, so clearly explicated in this volume, has done little to move the mainstream of economic thinking in the thirty years since its original publication. It is hoped that this new edition of Buchanan’s seminal work will place Buchanan’s groundbreaking ideas in wider circulation.
Buchanan writes in the preface, “My aim is to utilize the theory of opportunity cost to demonstrate basic methodological distinctions that are often overlooked and to show that a consistent usage of this theory clarifies important areas of disagreement on policy issues.”
James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century.
The entire series will include:
Volume 1: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty
Volume 2: Public Principles of Public Debt
Volume 3: The Calculus of Consent
Volume 4: Public Finance in Democratic Process
Volume 5: The Demand and Supply of Public Goods
Volume 6: Cost and Choice
Volume 7: The Limits of Liberty
Volume 8: Democracy in Deficit
Volume 9: The Power to Tax
Volume 10: The Reason of Rules
Volume 11: Politics by Principle, Not Interest
Volume 12: Economic Inquiry and Its Logic
Volume 13: Politics as Public Choice
Volume 14: Debt and Taxes
Volume 15: Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory
Volume 16: Choice, Contract, and Constitutions
Volume 17: Moral Science and Moral Order
Volume 18: Federalism, Liberty, and the Law
Volume 19: Ideas, Persons, and Events
Volume 20: Indexes
To be sure, the Austrian school of economists enunciated similar views of cost decades before Buchanan, but Buchanan advances his theories by attempting to integrate his views into the orthodox classical and neoclassical framework.
When he published the book in 1969, Buchanan hoped that other scholars would follow him in researching the opportunity-cost concept and its applications. Unlike the theater of public policy, where Buchanan’s work is widely celebrated and influential, his important work on the issue of cost and choice, so clearly explicated in this volume, has done little to move the mainstream of economic thinking in the thirty years since its original publication. It is hoped that this new edition of Buchanan’s seminal work will place Buchanan’s groundbreaking ideas in wider circulation.
Buchanan writes in the preface, “My aim is to utilize the theory of opportunity cost to demonstrate basic methodological distinctions that are often overlooked and to show that a consistent usage of this theory clarifies important areas of disagreement on policy issues.”
James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century.
The entire series will include:
Volume 1: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty
Volume 2: Public Principles of Public Debt
Volume 3: The Calculus of Consent
Volume 4: Public Finance in Democratic Process
Volume 5: The Demand and Supply of Public Goods
Volume 6: Cost and Choice
Volume 7: The Limits of Liberty
Volume 8: Democracy in Deficit
Volume 9: The Power to Tax
Volume 10: The Reason of Rules
Volume 11: Politics by Principle, Not Interest
Volume 12: Economic Inquiry and Its Logic
Volume 13: Politics as Public Choice
Volume 14: Debt and Taxes
Volume 15: Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory
Volume 16: Choice, Contract, and Constitutions
Volume 17: Moral Science and Moral Order
Volume 18: Federalism, Liberty, and the Law
Volume 19: Ideas, Persons, and Events
Volume 20: Indexes
120 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 1979
202 people want to read
About the author
James M. Buchanan
123 books66 followersAmerican 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 8, 2018
An admirably clear and deep analysis of the notion of opportunity cost from the perspective of what Buchanan calls the "London-Austrian" school of economics, which emphasizes the subjectivity of choice and value. This book is one of Buchanan's most important theoretical works, but somewhat neglected. (A word of warning: this is a relatively short and clear read, but also quite jargon-heavy and analytically dense. As such, it is definitely not suitable for a non-technical reader.)
This concise and impressive tome is somewhat a child of its time. Some of the criticisms that it levels against Pigovian theory and social choice theory might have been answered, at least with partial success, in later literature. (I'm thinking about the contemporary responses from welfare economics, behavioural economics, environmental economics, etc.) Nonetheless, most of the book is relevant even to this day. It stands alongside the very best of Buchanan's expansive works.
The book is a major contribution to the philosophical underpinnings of economic theory. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the debates around social cost, Pigovian taxation, social choice theory, the possibility of socialist calculation, the problem of the interpersonal comparison of utility, environmental economics, public choice, etc. It highlights questions that are undervalued and unexplored in mainstream economic literature; and it even provides some answers that have been neglected for too long. Any student of economics will surely gain insights from it.
This concise and impressive tome is somewhat a child of its time. Some of the criticisms that it levels against Pigovian theory and social choice theory might have been answered, at least with partial success, in later literature. (I'm thinking about the contemporary responses from welfare economics, behavioural economics, environmental economics, etc.) Nonetheless, most of the book is relevant even to this day. It stands alongside the very best of Buchanan's expansive works.
The book is a major contribution to the philosophical underpinnings of economic theory. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the debates around social cost, Pigovian taxation, social choice theory, the possibility of socialist calculation, the problem of the interpersonal comparison of utility, environmental economics, public choice, etc. It highlights questions that are undervalued and unexplored in mainstream economic literature; and it even provides some answers that have been neglected for too long. Any student of economics will surely gain insights from it.
December 4, 2019
Great little book, Buchanan tries to clarify the concept of opportunity cost and draw out the differences between Adam Smith and the subjective interpretation. Armed with this new clarity he then goes on to apply this idea to a variety of areas, for instance he says that the analysis of lump sum taxation, public goods, and welfare measures are often meaningless with the more rigorous conception.
August 31, 2018
A fantastic treatment on the economic theory behind the concept of cost. An important read for any economist.
August 5, 2020
Short, sweet, BRILLIANT!
September 7, 2023
i just need everyone to know i'm still reading im just back in school and now its stuff like this :( also buchanan is a terrible writer :( but the ideas in this are killer
September 8, 2024
Incredibly important point. The most mentally exhausting to actually read. RIP my weekend.
March 16, 2016
Very insightful. Addresses such a foundational issue it is difficult to know where to begin in implementing his insights into economic theory.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews