Mancur Olson
Mancur Olson was an American economist and social scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, who made significant contributions to institutional economics.
He challenged prevailing theories about group behavior, arguing that large groups require selective incentives or coercion to motivate individual participation toward collective goals.
His landmark 1965 work examined public goods and collective action.
Later, The Rise and Decline of Nations explored how lobbying coalitions cause economic decline, while his final book, Power and Prosperity, analyzed how different government types — anarchy, tyranny, and democracy — shape economic incentives and societal development.
