Logic of Collective Behavior - Contemporary Economics Translation Library

Author: Olson
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1995-04-01
Features: Since the late 1950s and early 1960s of this century, a new branch of modern economics has flourished and developed—Public Choice Theory, which studies non-market decision-making issues that traditional economics does not concern itself with. Traditional economics does not study such issues because it simply assumes that decisions and actions of this kind are determined by non-market factors and thus fall beyond the traditional assumptions of economic behavior. However, the expansion and progress of modern economics have proven that non-market issues do not mean they cannot be studied using economic methods. On the contrary, Public Choice Theory has been firmly rooted in the fundamental behavioral assumption of "economic man" since its inception. It argues that, in addition to participants in private economic activities, those involved in public activities are also subject to this assumption, all tending to maximize their own behavior, and the so-called public interest without a behavioral subject does not exist. Now, Public Choice Theory has not only established itself as an independent discipline in the field of economics and permeated research on all aspects of social, economic, and political life, but it has also been used by many scholars abroad to analyze the formation, evolution, and transformation of planned economies into market economies, increasingly attracting enthusiastic attention from academia in China. The book The Logic of Collective Action written by Professor Olson is a foundational work of Public Choice Theory.