Abstract
Mancur Olson was one of the small group of economists in the twentieth century who laid the foundation of rational choice theorizing about non-market behaviour. He demonstrated self-interested individuals have a great incentive to free ride rather than to contribute to the supply of a public good. He also showed how self-interested group behaviour explained why nations tend to stagnate after periods of growth. Utilizing the notion of profit seeking political entrepreneurs, he argued the benefits of democratic systems were to contain the extractive costs imposed by government and to extend the time horizons for property rights.
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Oppenheimer, J.A. (2018). Olson, Mancur (1932–1998). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2588
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2588
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