This paper suggests that, while medieval cathedrals served many purposes and, indeed, were some of the greatest technical achievements of their time, they served a rational economic purpose as well. Protestant entry into the market for Christian religion finally materialized in the early...

This paper analyzes the editorial screening process in economics, employing data from the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. We examine three issues: the decline of critical commentary in economics, the increased referencing behavior of...

This paper seeks to explain the initial successes and failures of Protestantism on economic grounds. It argues that the medieval Roman Catholic Church, through doctrinal manipulation, the exclusion of rivals, and various forms of price discrimination, ultimately placed members seeking the Z good...

I Perspectives -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Rent-Seeking Versus Directly Unproductive Profit-Seeking Activities -- 3 In Search of Rent-Seeking -- 4 Rents and Rent-Seeking -- II Theoretical Developments -- 5 The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation: A Game-Theoretic Analysis -- 6 Risk-Averse Rent...

1 Analyzing Government -- Two Approaches to Analyzing Government -- The Interest-Group Theory of Government -- Plan of the Study -- Notes -- 2 Questions to be Answered -- Wealth Transfers and Organization Costs -- The “Market” for Wealth Transfers -- What This Analysis Is Not About -- What...

This book contains a range of essays on topics in the emerging field of "constitutional political economy". This field of enquiry is strongly associated with the name of James M. Buchanan whose research program has been the point of departure for this field. The essays are a selection of those...