Abstract
In 1970, James Buchanan and Nicos Devletoglou published Academia in Anarchy: An Economic Diagnosis. Even though the book focuses on the industry Buchanan worked in for nearly 70 years, it is the only one of his non-autobiographical, non-textbook, books not included in his collected works. I evaluate the arguments of Buchanan and Devletoglou in light of the past 50 years of scholarship on the economics of higher education.
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Notes
A positive consequence of MacLean’s book, combined with the availability of the Buchanan archives at George Mason University, is a better understanding of Buchanan’s ideas and his evolution as a scholar. It is hard to conceive of Fleury and Marciano (2018a, b) or Magness et al. (2019) being written without the impetus provided by MacLean’s work.
An overestimate since even college students must eat and sleep somewhere. Room and board are costs of enrollment only to the extent that they exceed the expenses that would have been incurred if the students were not attending college and living elsewhere, including with their parents. (It is, of course, possible that those expenses are lower on campus.).
Consider the response to Merle Haggard’s song “Okie from Muskogee”, which was released after Buchanan and Devletoglou wrote their book, but before it was published. It was a number one country single for 4 weeks. In the song, Haggard points out that not every college was disrupted by protests: “Football’s still the roughest thing on campus and the kids there still respect the College Dean”.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank participants at the 2019 Dr. James Buchanan Centennial Birthday Academic Celebration put on by the Political Economy Research Institute at Middle Tennessee State University. Special thanks to Alain Marciano, Peter Boettke and J.C. Bradbury for their helpful comments.
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Hall, J.C. Academia in Anarchy: 50 years on. Public Choice 183, 405–416 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-020-00793-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-020-00793-7