About this Research Topic
As Dennis Mueller, a luminary in the field of economics known as public choice, explains, public choice has been defined as the application of the methodology of economics to the study of politics. Given that the machinations of politics occur outside of traditional market settings, public choice has also been referred to as the (economic) study of non-market decision making. As evidenced by these descriptions, public choice is an inherently interdisciplinary field, whose contributions have emanated from economists, political scientists, legal scholars, and mathematicians, among others. As such, examinations of the subject are sometimes formal or mathematical in nature, while others are empirical, often using regression and other statistical techniques to test theories or concepts developed from theoretical approaches.
Interest in politics and the political process – topics that are included in the purview of this Research Topic – appears to be as high as ever. Recent elections and judicial rulings in the United States, military conflict in Eastern Europe, and geopolitical strife in the Asia-Pacific region, among other political issues facing nations, have led to renewed interest in the inner workings of legislators and bureaucracies, the uncertainties faced by citizen-voters, and the stability of electoral systems. This Research Topic provides an array of mathematical and statistical approaches to the economics field of public choice that illuminate many of the issues currently facing individuals and societies across the globe.
This Research Topic offers a set of original and novel studies pertaining to several of the various subjects that constitute the growing field of public choice economics. These include, but are not limited to, bureaucracy, constitutions, elections, international organizations, judiciaries, parliamentary procedures, public finance, rent-seeking, special interests, and voters/voting. In keeping with the scope of Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, the collection of papers provided in this Research Topic approach these subjects from both a theoretical (i.e., mathematical) perspective, to include game-theoretic approaches, and an empirical perspective, to include regression and other types of statistical analysis.
Interest in politics and the political process – topics that are included in the purview of this Research Topic – appears to be as high as ever. Recent elections and judicial rulings in the United States, military conflict in Eastern Europe, and geopolitical strife in the Asia-Pacific region, among other political issues facing nations, have led to renewed interest in the inner workings of legislators and bureaucracies, the uncertainties faced by citizen-voters, and the stability of electoral systems. This Research Topic provides an array of mathematical and statistical approaches to the economics field of public choice that illuminate many of the issues currently facing individuals and societies across the globe.
This Research Topic offers a set of original and novel studies pertaining to several of the various subjects that constitute the growing field of public choice economics. These include, but are not limited to, bureaucracy, constitutions, elections, international organizations, judiciaries, parliamentary procedures, public finance, rent-seeking, special interests, and voters/voting. In keeping with the scope of Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, the collection of papers provided in this Research Topic approach these subjects from both a theoretical (i.e., mathematical) perspective, to include game-theoretic approaches, and an empirical perspective, to include regression and other types of statistical analysis.
Keywords: public choice, political economy, theoretical economics, applied economics, economics of politics, non-market decision making, constitutional economics, rational choice, political science
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
