Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
1. Cost in Economic Theory 3
Classical Economics 3
Marginal-Utility Economics 9
The Marshallian Synthesis 12
Frank Knight and American Neoclassical Paradigms 13
2. The Origins and Development of a London Tradition 17
Wicksteed and the Calculus of Choice 17
H. J. Davenport 18
Knight on Cost as Valuation 19
Robbins, 1934 19
Mises, Robbins, and Hayek on Calculation in a Socialist Economy 21
Hayek, Mises, and Subjectivist Economics 23
The Practical Relevance of Opportunity Cost: Coase, 1938 26
G. F. Thirlby and “The Ruler” 29
Mises' Human Action 33
The Death of a Tradition? 34
Appendix to Chapter 2: Shackle on Decision 35
3. Cost and Choice 37
The Predictive Science of Economics 37
Cost in the Predictive Theory 40
Cost in a Theory of Choice 41
Choice-Influencing and Choice-Influenced Cost 42
Opportunity Cost and Real Cost 43
The Subjectivity of Sunk Costs 45
Cost and Equilibrium 46
4. The Cost of Public Goods 49
The Theory of Tax Incidence 50
Costs and Fiscal Decision-Making: The Democratic Model 52
Costs and Decision-Making: The Authoritarian Model 55
Costs and Decision-Making: Mixed Models 55
The Choice Among Projects 57
The Costs of Debt-Financed Public Goods 59
Ricardo's Equivalence Theorem 61
Tax Capitalization 63
5. Private and Social Cost 65
Summary Analysis 65
A Closer Look 66
Internal Costs, Equilibrium, and Quasi-Rents 69
An Illustrative Example 70
Pigovian Economics and Christian Ethics 72
Narrow Self-Interest and Alternative-Opportunity Quasi-Rents 74
Conclusion 76
6. Cost Without Markets 77
Prices, Costs, and Market Equilibrium 77
Resource-Service Prices as Final-Product Costs 78
Market Equilibrium, Costs, and Quasi-Rents 80
The Cost of Military Manpower: An Example 81
The Cost of Crime: Another Example 84
Artificial Choice-Making 86
Socialist Calculation and Socialist Choice 87
Costs in Bureaucratic Choice 89 Author Index 93
Subject Index 95
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