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James Buchanan's Economic Theory of Morals: The Case of the Work Ethic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

James F. Smith
Affiliation:
Office of Policy and Analysis, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

Extract

James M. Buchanan is a unique figure in modern economics. A Nobel Prize winner and a pioneer of public choice theory, he is in some ways a respected pillar of the profession. Yet at the same time, he is an outspoken critic of certain fundamental practices of mainstream economics who refuses to confine his work within the conventional boundaries of the discipline. Whether seen as an innovator or an iconoclast, he has consistently been among the most methodologically and philosophically self-aware of the profession's elite.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2004

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