The logic of collective belief

Rationality and Society

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 218-242

  Caplan, Bryan ^a  

^a GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Collective choice; Irrationality; Political failure

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037834409     PISSN: 10434631     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1043463103015002003     Document Type: Review

References (65)

1. Akerlof, George. 1970. 'The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism.' Quarterly Journal of Economics 84: 488-500.
2. Akerlof, George. 1989. 'The Economics of Illusion.' Economics and Politics 1: 1-15.
3. Akerlof, George and William Dickens. 1982. 'The Economic Consequences of Cognitive Dissonance.' American Economic Review 72: 307-19.
4. Amer, Mildred. 1998. 'Membership of the 105th Congress: A Profile.' Government Division. Order No. 97-37 GOV, July 17.
5. Austen-Smith, David. 1991. 'Rational Consumers and Irrational Voters: A Review Essay on Black Hole Tariffs and Endogenous Policy Theory.' Economics & Politics 3: 73-92.
6. Becker, Gary. 1958. 'Competition and Democracy.' Journal of Law and Economics 1: 105-9.
7. Becker, Gary. 1968. 'Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach.' Journal of Political Economy 76: 169-217.
8. Becker, Gary. 1976. 'Toward a More General Theory of Regulation: Comment.' Journal of Law and Economics 19: 248-58.
9. Becker, Gary. 1983. 'A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence.' Quarterly Journal of Economics 98: 371-400.
10. Bender, Bruce and John Lott. 1996. 'Legislator Voting and Shirking: A Critical Review of the Literature.' Public Choice 87: 67-100.
11. Bernstein, Robert. 1989. Elections, Representation, and Congressional Voting Behavior: The Myth of Constituency Control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
12. Boudreaux, Donald. 1996. 'Was Your High School Civics Teacher Right After All? Donald Wittman's The Myth of Democratic Failure.' Independent Review 1:111-28.
13. Brennan, Geoffrey and Loren Lomasky. 1993. Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
14. Breton, Albert and Ronald Wintrobe. 1982. The Logic of Bureaucratic Conduct: An Economic Analysis of Competition, Exchange, and Efficiency in Private and Public Organizations. New York: Cambridge University Press.
15. Camerer, Colin. 1987. 'Do Biases in Probability Judgment Matter in Markets? Experimental Evidence.' American Economic Review 77: 981-97.
16. Caplan, Bryan. 2000. 'Rational Irrationality: A Framework for the Neoclassical-Behavioral Debate.' Eastern Economic Journal 26: 191-211.
17. Caplan, Bryan. 2001a. 'Rational Irrationality and the Microfoundations of Political Failure.' Public Choice 107: 311-31.
18. Caplan, Bryan. 2001b. 'Rational Ignorance versus Rational Irrationality,' Kyklos 54: 3-26.
19. Caplan, Bryan. 2001c. 'What Makes People Think Like Economists? Evidence from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy.' Journal of Law and Economics 44: 395-426.
20. Caplan, Bryan. 2002. 'Systematically Biased Beliefs About Economics: Robust Evidence of Judgmental Anomalies from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy.' Economic Journal 112: 1-26.
21. Caruth, Gorton and Eugene Ehrlich, eds. 1988. The Harper Book of American Quotations. New York: Harper and Row.
22. Coate, Stephen and Stephen Morris. 1995. 'On the Form of Transfers to Special Interests.' Journal of Political Economy 103: 1210-35.
23. Conlisk, John. 1996. 'Why Bounded Rationality?' Journal of Economic Perspectives 34: 669-700.
24. Conover, Pamela Johnson; Stanley Feldman and Kathleen Knight. 1987. 'The Personal and Political Underpinnings of Economic Forecasts.' American Journal of Political Science 31: 559-83.
25. Copleston, Frederick. 1985. A History of Philosophy, vol. 1: Greece and Rome. New York: Doubleday.
26. Coursey, Don and Russell Roberts. 1991. 'Competition in Political and Economic Markets.' Public Choice 70: 83-8.
27. Crew, Michael and Charlotte Twight. 1990. 'On the Efficiency of Law: A Public Choice Perspective.' Public Choice 66: 15-36.
28. Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.
29. Dye, Thomas and L. Harmon Zeigler. 1996. The Irony of Democracy. New York: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
30. Fremling, Gertrud, and John Lott. 1989. 'Time Dependent Information Costs, Price Controls, and Successive Government Intervention.' Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 5: 293-306.
31. Fremling, Gertrud and John Lott. 1996. 'The Bias Towards Zero in Aggregate Perceptions: An Explanation Based on Rationally Calculating Individuals.' Economic Inquiry 34: 276-95.
32. Frey, Bruno and Reiner Eichenberger. 1991. 'Anomalies in Political Economy.' Public Choice 68: 71-89.
33. General Social Survey. 1996. URL http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/home.htm
34. Gregor, A. James. 1969. The Ideology of Fascism. New York: Free Press.
35. Haltiwanger, John and Michael Waldman. 1989. Rational Expectations in the Aggregate. Economic Inquiry 27: 619-36.
36. History Place. 'Rudolf Hess.' 1996. URL http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/biographies/hess/
37. Holcombe, Randall. 1985. An Economic Analysis of Democracy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
38. Kinder, Donald and D. Roderick Kiewiet. 1981. 'Sociotropic Politics: The American Case.' British Journal of Political Science 11: 129-61.
39. Kuran, Timur and Cass Sunstein. 1999. 'Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation.' Stanford Law Review 51: 683-768.
40. Los Angeles Times. 1993a. 'Gallup Poll Finds 46% Opposed, 38% in Favor of NAFTA.' Section; Part A; Page: A-14, November 9.
41. Los Angeles Times. 1993b. The Times Poll: Economy and President Seen More Favorably.' Section: Part A; Page: A-1, December 9.
42. Lott, John. 1997a. 'Does Political Reform Increase Wealth?: Or, Why the Difference Between the Chicago and Virginia Schools is Really an Elasticity Question.' Public Choice 91: 219-27.
43. Lott, John. 1997b. Donald Wittman's The Myth of Democratic Failure. Public Choice 92: 1-13.
44. Magee, Stephen, William Brock and Leslie Young. 1989. Black Hole Tariffs and Endogenous Policy Theory: Political Economy in General Equilibrium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
45. Markus, Gregory. 1988. 'The Impact of Personal and National Economic Conditions on the Presidential Vote: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis.' American Journal of Political Science 32: 137-54.
46. Muth, John. 1961. 'Rational Expectations and the Theory of Price Movements.' Econometrica 29: 315-35.
47. National Survey of Public Knowledge of Welfare Reform and the Federal Budget. 1995. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University, January 12, #1001. URL http://www.kff.org/content/archive/1001/welftbl.html
48. Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
49. Olson, Mancur. 1982. The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation and Social Rigidities. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
50. Pesaran, M. Hashem. 1987. The Limits to Rational Expectations. Oxford: Blackwell.
51. Popkin, Samuel. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
52. Rowley, Charles. 1997. Donald Wittman's The Myth of Democratic Failure. Public Choice 92: 15-26.
53. Saad, Lydia. 1996. 'Issues Referendum Reveals Populist Leanings.' The Gallup Poll Monthly, No. 368, pp. 2-6.
54. Schumpeter, Joseph. 1976. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper.
55. Sheffrin, Steven. 1996. Rational Expectations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
56. Stigler, George. 1986. 'Economics or Ethics?' In The Essence of Stigler, eds K. Leube and T. G. Moore, pp. 303-36. Stanford, NJ: Hoover Institution Press.
57. Stiglitz, Joseph. 1998. 'Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: The Private Uses of Public Interests: Incentives and Institutions.' Journal of Economic Perspectives 12: 3-22.
58. Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy. 1996. The Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University, 16 October, #1199. URL http://www2.kff.org/content/archive/1199/econgen.html
59. Tonelson, Alan. 1997. 'Free Trade is Not Just Bad Policy, but Bad Politics.' Detroit News, 22 May. URL http://detnews.com/EDITPAGE/9705/22/column/column.htm.
60. Tversky, Amos and Daniel Kahneman. 1982. 'Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability.' In Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, eds Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky, pp. 163-78. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
61. Wintrobe, Ronald. 1987. 'The Market for Corporate Control and the Market for Political Conduct.' Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 3: 435-48.
62. Wittman, Donald. 1989. 'Why Democracies Produce Efficient Results.' Journal of Political Economy 97: 1395-424.
63. Wittman, Donald. 1995. The Myth of Democratic Failure: Why Political Institutions are Efficient. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
64. Wright, Gerald; Robert Erikson and John McIver. 1987. 'Public Opinion and Policy Liberalism in the United States.' American Journal of Political Science 31: 980-1001.
65. www.groucho-marx.com. 1999. 'Groucho Marx Is Here.' URL http://www.groucho-marx.com.