How does one study the choices and decisions made by individuals and groups in political contexts? The new book, Models in Political Economy: Collective Choice, Voting, Elections, Bargaining, and Rebellion by Professor Emeritus of Economics Martin Osborne presents analyses of the processes citizens use to choose public policies, participate in voting and stand as candidates in elections, and even to stage revolutions.
Osborne wrote the book with an audience of third- and fourth-year undergraduates and graduate students in mind. Researchers and theorists who want to explore new areas in political economy will also find the book of interest. He sought to make the exposition “accessibly precise,” requiring only basic mathematical and analytical skills of readers.
“I started work on the book in 2014, although the idea of writing a text on political economy had been in the back of my mind since I published a survey of models of electoral competition in 1995,” the author remembered. “I studied Economics as an undergraduate, but at Cambridge in the 1970s that subject was intertwined with politics, and the atmosphere fostered in me an interest in using theoretical tools, especially the then-emerging tool of game theory, to study issues in political economy.”
News of Osborne’s publication is welcome news.
“It is a source of pride for the Department when our emeriti faculty continue to make meaningful contributions to our discipline,” said Professor Ettore Damiano, Chair of the Department of Economics. “I look forward to reading Martin’s new book and discussing it with colleagues.”
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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