James M. Buchanan’s contributions to public finance and political economy are surveyed in six areas: (1) debt, fiscal illusion, and Keynesian criticisms; (2) London School of Economics cost approach; (3) methodological individualism and the economics of politics; (4) welfare price theory;...

In the authors' political equilibrium model, regulation is considered an implicit and regressive tax-equivalent alternative to the common and less regressive fiscal alternatives: income, property, and sales taxes. The authors hypothesize that in more heterogeneous jurisdictions the state relies...