front cover of Economic Origins of Roman Christianity
Economic Origins of Roman Christianity
Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Robert D. Tollison
University of Chicago Press, 2011
In the global marketplace of ideas, few realms spark as much conflict as religion. For millions of people, it is an integral part of everyday life, reflected by a widely divergent supply of practices and philosophical perspectives. Yet, historically, the marketplace has not always been competitive. While the early Common Era saw competition between Christianity, Judaism, and the many pagan cults, Roman Christianity came eventually to dominate Western Europe.
 
Using basic concepts of economic theory, Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Robert D. Tollison explain the origin and subsequent spread of Roman Christianity, showing first how the standard concepts of risk, cost, and benefit can account for the demand for religion. Then, drawing on the economics of networking, entrepreneurship, and industrial organization, the book explains Christianity's rapid ascent. Like a business, the church developed sound business strategies that increased its market share to a near monopoly in the medieval period. This book offers a fascinating look at the dynamics of Christianity’s rise, as well as how aspects the church’s structure—developed over the first millennium—illuminate a number of critical problems faced by the church today.
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front cover of The National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association
A Study in Cartel Behavior
Arthur A. Fleisher III, Brian L. Goff, and Robert D. Tollison
University of Chicago Press, 1992
Intercollegiate sports is an enterprise that annually grosses over $1 billion in income. Some schools receive more than $20 million from athletic programs, perhaps as much as $10 million simply from the sale of football tickets.

Probing the history and business practices of the most powerful sports organization of colleges and universities in the United States, the authors present a persuasive case that the NCAA is in fact a cartel, its members engaged in classically defined restrictive practices for the sole purpose of jointly maximizing their profits.

This fresh perspective on the NCAA's institutional structure helps to explain why illicit payments to athletes persist, why non-NCAA organizations have not flourished, and why members have readily agreed on certain suspect rules.

Offering a valuable case study for sports analysts and students of economics and cartel behavior, this book is a revealing glimpse inside the embattled NCAA program.
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front cover of Predicting Politics
Predicting Politics
Essays in Empirical Public Choice
W. Mark Crain and Robert D. Tollison, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 1990
Predicting Politics: Essays in Empirical Public Choice explores politics in an empirical spirit. The topics covered are novel and important, including the impact of campaign finance on the size of government, the economics of gerrymandering, constitutional change, and budgetary politics. The approach is to formulate and to test interesting hypotheses about political behavior. The essential idea is to illustrate the power of public choice theory in explaining actual politics. The volume brings together the work of Crain and Tollison and other scholars who have worked in this public choice tradition, and shows the power of empirical approaches in explaining the origin and inner working of political institutions and processes.
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front cover of The Theory of Public Choice - II
The Theory of Public Choice - II
James M. Buchanan and Robert D. Tollison, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 1984

That economics can usefully explain politics is no longer a novel idea, it is a well-established fact brought about by the work of many public choice scholars. This book, which is a sequel to a similar volume published in 1972, brings together a fresh collection of recent work in the public choice tradition. The essays demonstrate the power of the public choice approach in the analysis of government. Among the issues considered are income redistribution, fiscal limitations on government, voting rules and processes, the demand for public goods, the political business cycle, international negotiations, interest groups, and legislators.

James M. Buchanan is University Distinguished Professor and direct, Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University.

Robert D. Tollison, formerly director, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission, is now Abney Professor of Economics at Clemson University.

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