Dr James McGill Buchanan Jr. (1919-2013)
b. 1919, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, d. 2013, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
American economist, Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1948.
A professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1969-83) and George Mason Univ. (1983-), James was awarded the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his public choice theory that analyzes economic and political decision making. See his The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy (1962).
Buchanan’s work initiated research on how politicians’ and bureaucrats’ self-interest, utility maximization, and other non-wealth-maximizing considerations affect their decision-making. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of The Independent Institute as well as of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a member (and for a time president) of the Mont Pelerin Society, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, and professor at George Mason University.