My colleagues Charles Rowley and Francesco Parisi have just published The Origins of Law and Economics: Essays by the Founding Fathers. This volume includes essays by Gary Becker, Guido Calabresi, Richard Epstein, Richard Posner, James Buchanan, Ronald Coase, William Landes, Gordon Tullock, and many others. You could have a fun time debating who is the least prominent contributor to this book. Many of the pieces come from lectures, and they show a strong interest in the history of the field. Richard Epstein’s piece is “The economist in spite of himself.” The Landes and Henry Manne pieces are intellectual autobiographies. The volume also reprints Edmund Kitch’s excellent 1983 interviews with Friedman, Director, Stigler, Demsetz, Coase, and others on the origins of law and economics at the University of Chicago. I don’t know anything else like this book, highly recommended.
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