The Power to Tax: Analytic Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution.

BUCHANAN, James M. and Geoffrey Brennan.

Item Number: 33062

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

First edition of this work by the Nobel Prize-winning economist. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, warmly inscribed in the year of publication by the author on the title page in the year of publication, “Betty, please add this to what has become a sizable shelf for which your own responsibility (in so many respects) is far more your philosophy. With my compliments Jim Buchanan Blacksburg November 1980.” Also, signed by the co-author, “with love Geoffrey Brennan.” The recipient, Betty Tillman was James M. Buchanan’s assistant of 46 years, the second person Buchanan phoned on October 16, 1986 (after his wife, Ann) when he learned he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics (see Buchanan, ‘Notes on Nobelity,’ in Better than Plowing: And Other Personal Essays, University of Chicago Press 1992). Near fine in a very good dust jacket.

James M. Buchanan was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory (included in his most famous work, co-authored with Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent, 1962), for which he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' and bureaucrats' self-interest, utility maximization, and other non-wealth-maximizing considerations affect their decision-making.