Anthony Downs

About the author

Anthony Downs (1930–2021) was an American economist whose work on public policy left a lasting mark on political economy. His 1957 book An Economic Theory of Democracy and his 1967 Inside Bureaucracy became foundational texts for the public choice school. His 1962 "Law of Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion" — predicting that expanding expressways cannot reduce congestion because demand rises to match capacity — proved remarkably durable.

A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, he also taught at the University of Chicago and was an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.