The Rent-Seeking Society (The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock, Vol. 5) - Hardcover

Tullock, Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865975248 ISBN 13: 9780865975248

Publisher: Liberty Fund, 2005

Synopsis

The fifth volume in The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock consists of six parts, each part expounding on a separate component of the field. Part 1, Rent Seeking: An Overview,” brings together two papers that focus on problems of defining rent-seeking behavior and outline the nature of the ongoing research program in a historical perspective. Part 2, More on Efficient Rent Seeking,” contains four contributions in which Tullock elaborates on his 1980 article on efficient rent seeking. Part 3, The Environments of Rent Seeking,” consists of eight papers that collectively display the breadth of the rent-seeking concept. Part 4, The Cost of Rent Seeking,” comprises seven papers that address several important issues about the cost of rent seeking to society as a whole. Part 5 is Tullock’s short monograph Exchanges and Contracts, in which he develops a systematic theory of exchange in political markets. In Part 6, Future Directions for Rent-Seeking Research,” Tullock focuses on the importance of information in the political marketplace.

This work has been carefully constructed to build on the inaugural volume in this collection and to ease students through the field in a clear and concise manner.

Charles K. Rowley is Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy at George Mason University. He is also General Director of the Locke Institute.

The entire series includes:

Volume 1: Virginia Political Economy
Volume 2: The Calculus of Consent
Volume 3: The Organization of Inquiry (November 2004)
Volume 4: The Economics of Politics (February 2005)
Volume 5: The Rent-Seeking Society (March 2005)
Volume 6: Bureaucracy (June 2005)
Volume 7: The Economics and Politics of Wealth Redistribution (July 2005)
Volume 8: The Social Dilemma: Of Autocracy, Revolution, Coup d'Etat, and War (December 2005)
Volume 9: Law and Economics (December 2005)
Volume 10: Economics without Frontiers (January 2006)

About this title

About the Author

Gordon Tullock is a professor of law and economics at George Mason University.

Charles K. Rowley is at The Locke Institute.

Review

In economic terms, "rent-seeking" refers to outlays by individuals and interest groups to lobby government for special privileges that ultimately reduce the wealth of society. This volume contains two monographs by Gordon Tullock analyzing this behavior and its consequences: Rent Seeking and Exchanges and Contracts. It also features selected chapters from The Economics of Special Privilege and Rent Seeking. Tullock teaches law and economics at George Mason University.

Reference & Research Book News
August 2005
The fifth volume of Liberty Fund's The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock series, The Rent-Seeking Society is expertly edited by Charles K. Rowley (Duncan Black Professor of Economics, George Mason University) who also provides an informative introduction to this volume of selected papers by economist and academician Gordon Tullock which he wrote between 1954 and 2002. This collection has the specific focus of Tullock's views on the integration of rent seeking (outlays by individuals and interest groups to secure economic rents and privileges through government) into a general public choice model of political markets, the cost of rent seeking to society, and the current status of the field. Of special note are two critically important monographs: "Rent Seeking" and "Exchanges and Contracts", as well as definitive chapters drawn from Tullock's "The Economics of Special Privilege and Rent Seeking". This fifth volume, and all four of its predecessors, are core contributions to academic and professional library reference collections for Economic Studies.

Library Bookwatch
July 2005

About this edition

• Publisher: Liberty Fund
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0865975248
• ISBN 13: 9780865975248
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 342
• Editor: Rowley Charles K.