The Logic of Collective Action (Contemporary Economics)

Author: (American) Mancur Olson, translated by Chen Yu et al.
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. It studies non-market decision-making issues that traditional economics does not concern itself with. Traditional economics does not study such issues because it simply believes that decisions and actions of this nature 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. 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 into 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. Professor Olson's book The Logic of Collective Action is a foundational work in Public Choice Theory.