In May 1999, over 50 distinguished scholars from all over the world gathered to honor Gordon Tullock, one of the most prolific, original, and versatile scholars of his generation. Tullock is best known for his pioneering work in Public Choice, the study of how self-interested individuals interact with governments. Tullock's research in public choice has contributed to the understanding of the decisions made by elected officials and bureaucrats, as well as knowledge and how individuals and pressure groups both inside and outside the government seek to shape it. Public Choice Essays in Honor of a Maverick Scholar: Gordon Tullock includes contributions that were strongly influenced by Tullock's work. His influence on studies of governance is well illustrated by the nine papers in this volume. These papers and the discussion touch upon a broad array of aspects of public choice and of Tullock's research.

Workers' compensation was arguably the first widespread social insurance program in the United States--before social security, Medicare, or unemployment insurance--and the most successful form of labor legislation to emerge from the early progressive movement.
In "A Prelude to the Welfare State," Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor challenge widespread historical perceptions by arguing that workers' compensation, rather than being an early progressive victory, succeeded because "all" relevant parties--labor and management, insurance companies, lawyers, and legislators--benefited from the ruling. Rigorous and convincing, "A Prelude to the Welfare State "is a major reappraisal of the causes and consequences of a movement that ultimately transformed the nature of social insurance and the American workplace.
"Substantial, well-written, and compelling. . . . The end result is an in-depth analysis of how workers' compensation was created and initially implemented in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century"--Christopher R. Larrison, "Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare
"

In May 1999, over 50 distinguished scholars from all over the world gathered to honor Gordon Tullock, one of the most prolific, original, and versatile scholars of his generation. Tullock is best known for his pioneering work in Public Choice, the study of how self-interested individuals interact with governments. Tullock's research in public choice has contributed to the understanding of the decisions made by elected officials and bureaucrats, as well as knowledge and how individuals and pressure groups both inside and outside the government seek to shape it. Public Choice Essays in Honor of a Maverick Scholar: Gordon Tullock includes contributions that were strongly influenced by Tullock's work. His influence on studies of governance is well illustrated by the nine papers in this volume. These papers and the discussion touch upon a broad array of aspects of public choice and of Tullock's research.

The American economy has provided a level of well-being that has consistently ranked at or near the top of the international ladder. A key source of this success has been widespread participation in political and economic processes. In "The Government and the American Economy," leading economic historians chronicle the significance of America's open-access society and the roles played by government in its unrivaled success story.
America's democratic experiment, the authors show, allowed individuals and interest groups to shape the structure and policies of government, which, in turn, have fostered economic success and innovation by emphasizing private property rights, the rule of law, and protections of individual freedom. In response to new demands for infrastructure, America's federal structure hastened development by promoting the primacy of states, cities, and national governments. More recently, the economic reach of American government expanded dramatically as the populace accepted stronger limits on its economic freedoms in exchange for the increased security provided by regulation, an expanded welfare state, and a stronger national defense.

Did miners really owe their souls to the company store? Did they receive lower pay than in other jobs, despite the constant danger they faced? Was the quality of life in mining towns uniformly dismal? Soft Coal, Hard Choices answers these and other questions. The book contradicts many myths using evidence ranging from company records to oral histories to statistics collected by state and federal governments. While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on union struggles, Fishback discloses the beneficial impact of competition among employers for labor. He further examines the impact of legal environment and the development of institutions like company towns. Careful analysis using economic theory and statistics reveals numerous insights about the welfare of coal miners in the early 1900s. Unions helped miners obtain higher wages, but so did competition among employers. Employers were unable to exploit local and housing monopolies because the miners had the option of moving from town to town. Workers choosing between mining and other jobs faced a hard choice between similar alternatives. High hourly earnings and freedom from close supervision in mining helped compensate miners for accepting more risk of accidents and layoffs. The combination of narrative and analysis in Soft Coal, Hard Choices will interest historians, economists, and the general reader alike.

The urgent demand for housing after World War I fueled a boom in residential construction that led to historic peaks in home ownership. Foreclosures at the time were rare, and when they did happen, lenders could quickly recoup their losses by selling into a strong market. But no mortgage system is equipped to deal with credit problems on the scale of the Great Depression. As foreclosures quintupled, it became clear that the mortgage system of the 1920s was not up to the task, and borrowers, lenders, and real estate professionals sought action at the federal level. Well Worth Saving tells the story of the disastrous housing market during the Great Depression and the extent to which an immensely popular New Deal relief program, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), was able to stem foreclosures by buying distressed mortgages from lenders and refinancing them. Drawing on historical records and modern statistical tools, Price Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden investigate important unanswered questions to provide an unparalleled view of the mortgage loan industry throughout the 1920s and early '30s. Combining this with the stories of those involved, the book offers a clear understanding of the HOLC within the context of the housing market in which it operated, including an examination of how the incentives and behaviors at play throughout the crisis influenced the effectiveness of policy. More than eighty years after the start of the Great Depression, when politicians have called for similar programs to quell the current mortgage crisis, this accessible account of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation holds invaluable lessons for our own time.