The Rent-Seeking Society

Library Bookwatch, July, 2005

Charles K. Rowley, editor

Liberty Fund, Inc.

8335 Allison Pointe Trail, #300, Indianapolis, IN 46250-1684

www.libertyfund.org

0865975353 $20.00 1-800-955-8335

The fifth volume of Liberty Fund's "The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock" series, The Rent-Seeking Society: Gordon Tullock is expertly edited by Charles K. Rowley (Duncan Black Professor of Economics, George Mason University) who also provides an informative introduction to this volume of selected papers by economist and academician Gordon Tullock which he wrote between 1954 and 2002. This collection has the specific focus of Tullock's views on the integration of rent seeking (outlays by individuals and interest groups to secure economic rents and privileges through government) into a general public choice model of political markets, the cost of rent seeking to society, and the current status of the field. Of special note are two critically important monographs: "Rent Seeking" and "Exchanges and Contracts", as well as definitive chapters drawn from Tullock's "The Economics of Special Privilege and Rent Seeking". This fifth volume, and all four of its predecessors, are core contributions to academic and professional library reference collections for Economic Studies.