Understanding Gordon Tullock

Gordon Tullock was rational to a fault, and he tried to insist that others be fully rational, confronting all with any inconsistency in their thinking. He loved to be shocking. He was also quite generous. Tullock’s willingness to take a chance, as editor of Public Choice, on a paper that he did not understand led to the publication of the most widely cited paper ever published in the journal.     

Peace, Justice, and Economic Reform

Abstract . Is justice necessary for peace? There can be no justice while people have unresolved grievances, but peace is more than the absence of strife. It is harmony. Justice is the principles of equality and evenhandedness that command and prohibit the use of force in resolving conflicts. Justice is not necessary for peace, but it does facilitate it. Conservative, majoritarian, egalitarian and contractarian efforts to specify justice all fail to respect persons in crucial ways and cannot be expected to lead to peace. The justice that leads to peace is classical liberalism, with its insistence that each person own himself or herself, augmented by the principle of equal rights to the opportunities provided by nature, as advanced by Henry George.     

The Jerome Levy Economic Institute Conference:

The Jerome Levy Economic Institute at Bard College presented a program arranged by Professor Kris Feder on “Land Wealth and Poverty,” on November 2-4,1995, Two of the talks presented are here reproduced with more to follow in subsequent issues of this Journal. J. Ted Gwartney, former senior appraisal officer of the Bank of America presented the view that a 4% tax on the value of land, as broadly defined, could provide revenue adequate for the removal of all other taxes. Professor Nicolaus Tideman argued the case of morality of taxation at the local level.     

The Ethics of Tax and Expenditure Decisions

Both US and UK governments allow legislators to vote on issues in which they have a directed interest. Professor Nicolaus Tideman, of the University of Buckingham, proposes radical reforms to prevent voting by interested parties.     

George on Land Speculation and the Winner's Curse

A bstract .   Henry George anticipated the winner's curse phenomenon and suggested an antidote to prevent wasteful land speculation. In these ways his economic ideas still resonate today as part of modern finance theory.     

Sources of Public Revenue that Make Nations Richer

Among sources of public revenue that make nations richer, the most beneficial are charges for harms, such as pollution and congestion, and charges for the private benefits from public services. Increases in the money supply sufficient to keep price changes in line with expectations are also beneficial. Taxes on concentrations of wealth are beneficial if wealth inequality is considered harmful. Properly administered taxes on land do no harm and are beneficial when markets are imperfect. Among taxes that cause harm, the combination of a tax on labour income and a tax on inheritances is probably the least damaging.