ON THE ORIGIN OF MONETARY EXCHANGE

This paper offers a heuristic account of the emergence of privately organized markets and monetary exchange as a common sense consequence of ongoing trade in private ownership economies.     

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF DEPLETABLE RESOURCE SCARCITY AND ITS MEASURES

Economists commonly use rent and unit costs as measures of non-renewable resource scarcity and identify the types of scarcity as Malthusian or Ricardian. Malthus and Ricardo, however, concerned themselves mainly with renewable agricultural land; Mill and Jevons provided major insights into non-renewable resource scarcity. A simple model of mining brings out the contributions of major classical and other writers and shows that unit costs and rent are not necessarily useful indicators of scarcity. Exhaustibility of the deposit and choice of capital stock appear more pertinent to firms' intertemporal decisions than exhaustibility of world reserves.     

HEDONIC PRICE FUNCTIONS

Three feasible interpretations of cross-sectional hedonic price regression equations are derived from consumer choice, profit maximization by competitive firms, and market clearing, each conceptual experiment deploying a Lancastrian "new approach" to micro theory. Lancaster's theory is compared with those consumer theories of Houthakker heritage, and some limitations of each are indicated. The assertion that Adelman and Griliches' quality-adjusted hedonic price index is a constant satisfaction index is shown to necessitate interpersonal comparisons of utility, and the possibility of identifying demand and supply functions for commodities by exclusion restrictions on characteristics is rejected.     

GORDON TULLOCK'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF PUBLIC CHOICE

This paper offers a commentary on Gordon Tullock's various contributions to economics and social science. Tullock's methodology and style, and various critical appraisals of Tullock's work are discussed. The importance of Tullock's work and its significance for the future of economics are also assessed.