Rootstrikers. Obituary: Professor Mancur Olson - Obituaries, News. Mancur Olson was a farm boy from North Dakota, who retained his Scandinavian accent and delightfully plain - indeed comically humble - manners throughout life.
He was surely the only world-famous economist who prefaced his curriculum vitae with his social security number. Olson graduated from North Dakota Agricultural College in 1954, and went as a Rhodes Scholar to University College, Oxford. The Rise and Decline of Nations - Olson, Mancur. Mancur Olson The years since World War II have seen rapid shifts in the relative positions of different countries and regions.
Leading political economist Mancur Olson offers a new and compelling theory to explain these shifts in fortune and then tests his theory against evidence from many periods of history and many parts of the world. “[T]his elegant, readable book. . . sets out to explain why economies succumb to the ‘British disease,’ the kind of stagnation and demoralization that is now sweeping Europe and North America. . . .
A convincing book that could make a big difference in the way we think about modern economic problems.” —Peter Passell, The New York Times Book Review.