Saturday, August 23, 2008

No Second Chance for a Tullock Insult?

Rumor has it Gordon Tullock is retiring. Everyone is sharing favorite memory of being insulted by him, which is considered a right of passage among many economists.

I had my chance at the last SEA meetings, where I presented my paper comparing elected and appointed property tax assessors while he watched front and center. He never said a word, which implies I had nothing worthy of insulting. My only saving grace is that I never heard him say anything in any of the sessions. This leads me to two possibilities:
  1. I had nothing worth insulting, but I had a lot of company.
  2. He was unwilling to speak for whatever reason, and I will never know if my work is worthy of a Tullock insult.
I can live with #1, but #2 would be very unfortunate.

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