The paper outlines why and how political institutions, especially constitutional ones, matter for what decisions are made in the political process and thereby for how the economy functions. The main part contains a survey of empirical studies in this area. Among the things covered: the effects...

Austrian economics and entrepreneurial studies have both expanded greatly in the last twenty or thirty years. Unfortunately, they have developed more or less independently of each other. Austrian economics has enjoyed a revival since 1973 or 1974. In 1973, Israel Kirzner published his classic...

Since the works by Ludwig von Mises and F.A. von Hayek in the 1920s, the Austrian School of Economics has developed a unique analysis of how the interventions by governments may cause problems, which in turn may lead to calls for further intervention. The Austrian concept of how such a dynamic...

Martin Paldam is one of the most prominent figures of Danish economics and European public choice. In this introduction to the special issue, we identify five of the areas, where he has made significant contributions: (1) vote and popularity functions and political business cycles; (2)...

The year 2012 was the 30th anniversary of William H. Riker’s modern classic Liberalism against populism (<CitationRef CitationID="CR56">1982</CitationRef>) and is marked by the present special issue. In this introduction, we seek to identify some core elements and evaluate the current status of the Rikerian research program and its...</citationref>

All democratic systems are theoretically open to so-called election inversions, i.e., instances wherein a majority of the decision makers prefer one alternative but where the actual outcome is another. The paper examines the complex 1975 Danish government formation process, which involved five...