I find it interesting that the Rand corporation website
(/www.rand.org/about/history/nobel.html) already referred to by Nicholas
Theocarakis does NOT list James Buchanan as one of the nobel laureates
associated with Rand. As is usual with the "success has many fathers"
principle of claiming affiliation with Nobel laureates,the Rand list
includes many who were short term consultants and so on (including Vernon
Smith and Ronald Coase among others) which leads me to wonder why Buchanan
was not listed. This of course could simply be an oversight.  Amadae's
book, mentioned already by Robert Rogers does state on both p.78 and p.145
that Buchanan spent the summer of 1954 at Rand and the passage on p.145
refers to his role as consultant through 1958.  I recall that at one of
the Summer Institutes on the History of Economics (at George Mason at the
time), Buchanan indicated that he thought that Amadae had overstated cold
war and RAND influences on the development of Public Choice Theory. And
Amadae herself in the passage on p. 145 states "Buchanan claims that his
presence at RAND in 1954, working on the 'criterion problem,' as well as
his role as consultant through 1958, was largely peripheral to his later
research" (from _Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy_).  I could not find
any clear documentation in Amadae's book for her claim that Buchanan spent
the summer of 1954 at Rand or was subsequently a RAND consultant.  But
that she is so specific does suggest Buchanan did have some affiliation
with RAND. It could be interesting to ask Buchanan about his RAND
affiliation or lack thereof.
David Mitch




> Small stints would include Vernon Smith and Jim Buchanan I believe
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Kragh <[log in to unmask]>
> Sender: Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:39:30
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-to: Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [SHOE] RAND economists
>
> Dear all,
>
> I'm writing with a small request, that members on this list might be in a
> position to help me with. I'm interested in finding out about economists
> who for longer or shorter periods of time were associated with RAND
> Corporation, and also later came to be awarded the Swedish Riksbank price
> in economics in memory of Alfred Nobel (not necessarily for work carried
> out at RAND).
>
> My present list includes the following persons: John Nash, Thomas
> Schelling, John Harsányi, Robert Aumann, Paul Samuelson, Harry Markowitz,
> Kenneth Arrow and Herbert Simon. Have there been any others?
>
> Kind regards
> Martin Kragh
>