Public Choice Societies

The North American Public Choice Society (link to homepage)
The North American Public Choice Society was established in 1965 by Gordon Tullock and James Buchanan. Its goal is to facilitate the exchange of work, and ideas, at the intersection between economics, political science, and sociology. Information about the society can be found on its web site. The society organizes yearly meetings in the United States. The 2006 meetings were held in New Orleans March 31-April 2. Over 200 participants in the conference had opportunities to hear more than 150 presentations. In 2007 there will be no North-American meeting of the Public Choice Society.

The European Public Choice Society (link to homepage)
The European Public Choice Society was organized in 1972 by a small group of scholars under the leadership of Peter Bernholz of the University of Basel. Before 1980 the Society’s meetings were informal, irregularly scheduled, always held at Basel and never attended by more than a couple of dozen participants. Since that time the Society has met annually in fifteen European countries and participation has expanded considerably. The 2006 meetings were organized in Turku (Finland), April 20-22. 175 papers were presented at these meetings and over 250 participants from more than 20 countries attended the meetings. There will be no separate meeting of the European Public Choice Society in 2007.

The Japanese Public Choice Society (link to homepage)
The Japanese Public Choice Society was established in 1996 and has around 400 members. The JPCS holds annual conventions every July, biannual seminars every March and December and annual undergraduate student's conventions every November. The current president is Hiroyuki Kawanobe, a professor of economics at Tokai University, and the managing director is Hiroo Harada, a professor of public finance at Senshu University. The society publishes the half-yearly Public Choice Studies. Although papers are mainly in Japanese, each has an English summary.