Gordon Tullock’s Non-Conventional Contributions to Economics

Perhaps the lack of formal academic training in economics freed Gordon Tullock to explore with simple economic analysis the world he observed. During his career Gordon Tullock (1922-2014) served at six universities, published many papers (395) and books (26), presented papers around the world, received many honors, and was nominated for prestigious awards most of which he won. He was Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association and held many honorary degrees including one bestowed by the University of Chicago.  Although he is best known for his joint work with James M. Buchanan which began formally in 1960 with the writing of The Calculus of Consent, Tullock established new areas of research through his own work, the journals he founded, the challenges to the profession he issued, and the theorems he formulated by applying economic analysis to areas considered “unconventional” or “nontraditional” by the economics profession. 

Tullock’s insights have so revolutionized the way economists and political scientists think that his work may seem unremarkable today. As co-founder of Public Choice, Tullock made seminal contributions to the economic theory of majority voting, constitutions, rent seeking, fiscal federalism, bureaucracy, government action to redistribute income, demand revelation, bio-economics, monetary history, and in law with focus on the economic analysis of pollution, crime, punishment, and litigation. 

The paper uses a Public Choice framework to explore a sample of Tullock's little known work prior to and after his formal  association with Buchanan.  The papers reviewed in this paper include papers on managing the commons (fisheries on the high seas), cognitive dissonance (charitable giving), constitutions, monetary theory and policy, and legal and public affairs commentaries as "op eds" (written while at the University of South Carolina).  The topics range from tests of statistical significance in publication decisions to Korea and political economy issues.  Our paper surveys Tullock’s unconventional work within the broader context of his contributions to the development of Public Choice.