How Wicksell became important for Buchanan: a historical account of a (relatively) slow epiphany

Abstract

The purpose of this article analyze the process that led Buchanan to become a ‘Wicksellian’, that is, to recognise the importance of Finanztheoretische Untersuchungen. It is now established that Buchanan discovered Wicksell’s Finanztheoretische Untersuchungen not after he had completed his PhD dissertation – as he himself recounted – but before. We show that, if the process did indeed start with the dissertation, Wicksell remained marginal for Buchanan until he had read Nancy Ruggles’s articles on welfare economics and marginal cost pricing. This led him to start translating Wicksell’s book. Then, we discuss the role of the correspondence that Buchanan exchanged with Carl Uhr. Ruggles and Uhr played an important role in Buchanan’s acceptance that Finanztheoretische Untersuchungen was an important book.