This book is volume 4 in the The Foundations of 20th Century Economics series.Presents a selection of 29 important papers written from 1923 to 1974 in such journals as , , , , , , , , and others, as well as a number of public policy pamphlets, UNESCO documents, and other publications. Economists whose work is presented include Armen A. Alchian, Frank H. Knight, Henry C. Simons, Milton Friedman, F. A. Hayek, Gordon Tullock, Jack Wiseman, Anne O. Krueger, and others. The editor is the founder of "public-choice theory," the economic study of nonmarket decisionmaking. Articles appear in their original typeface. There is no subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

1 Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory 1

2 Some Economics of Property Rights 12

3 The Ethics of Competition 35

4 Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost 81

5 The Ricardian Theory of Production and Distribution 106

6 Economics in the United States of America: A Review and Interpretation of Research 155

7 Increasing Returns and Economic Progress 209

8 A Positive Program for Laissez Faire: Some Proposals for a Liberal Economic Policy 225

9 Rules versus Authorities in Monetary Policy 265

10 The Interpretation of Voting in the Allocation of Economic Resources 295

11 The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure 317

12 The Marshallian Demand Curve 320

13 The Role of Monetary Policy 353

14 The Nature of the Firm 370

15 The Problem of Social Cost 390

16 The Use of Knowledge in Society 434

17 The Economics of Information 446

18 On Welfare Theory and Pareto Regions 459

19 The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal 513

20 On the Rationale of Group Decision-Making 519

21 Problems of Majority Voting 531

22 The Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft 540

23 Uncertainty, Costs, and Collectivist Economic Planning 549

24 The Theory of Public Utility Price - An Empty Box 560

25 Risk and the Social Rate of Discount 579

26 Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: The Anatomy of Urban Crisis 583

27 A Notion of Equilibrium and Its Possibility Under Majority Rule 595

28 Separation of the Redistributive and Allocative Functions of Government: A Public Choice Perspective 615

29 The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society 623

Name Index 637