The study of political economy typically involves individual researchers following their own instincts about productive ways to expand on the way we think about specific political and economic phenomena. At least as practiced in the United States, institutional impediments frequently stand in the way of appropriate training and research when that research is very different from traditional approaches. Such is particularly true when the new approach falls across the boundaries of existing disciplines.

This volume represents a first step in altering some of these existing institutional impediments. The essays contained here were commissioned for presentation at the Inaugural Conference of the W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy at the University of Rochester. The Wallis Institute was the natural outgrowth of the efforts of the economics and political science departments at the University of Rochester to foster closer intellectual ties than usually exist across these disciplines. The research lines sketched in this book constitute a starting point for the development of new approaches to research and training. This development has been supported and encouraged by the University of Rochester, which has dedicated resources to the development of the Wallis Institute.

The Wallis Institute is named in honor of W. Allen Wallis. He is a former president of the University, but more than that, his career is a personal model of political economy in action. Trained as a statistician, he achieved wide acclaim for innovative statistical approaches – achievements recognized, for example, by his election as President of the American Statistical Association. His career, however, was not narrowly defined by statistics. He ranged from academe to government while maintaining close relations with business and industry.