On the Extraordinary Scholarly Life and Times of Gordon Tullock

William F. Shughart II & Robert D. Tollison

George Mason UniversityArlington, VA

October 3, 2015

Outline

• Introduction: Gordon at a UVA Friday seminar• A thumbnail sketch of Gordon’s career• Gordon as intellectual entrepreneur– Papers on Nonmarket Decision Making– Public Choice

• Major contributions of a polymath• Conclusion

Gordon’s Major Contributions

• Rents, rent seeking and contest success functions– Social welfare losses– The “dead hand” of monopoly

• Conflicts and conflict resolution• Bureaucrats• Autocrats

GT’s Contributions (cont’d)

• Law and economics• Sociobiology• Public goods– “Good public policy is a pure public good, which

explains why there is so little of it”• The New World of Economics (with Richard

McKenzie)

Conclusion

• The Swedes ignore Gordon• Charles Rowley’s editorship of Gordon’s

Selected Works• Gordon on Duncan Black: “You are the father

of us all”