James M. Buchanan, Nobel Prize-Winning Economist, Dies at 93

James M. Buchanan, the U.S. economist who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for applying the principles of economic self-interest to understand why politicians do what they do, has died. He was 93.

He died today at LewisGale Hospital at Montgomery in Blacksburg, Virginia, according to the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where Buchanan was a distinguished professor emeritus of economics. No cause was given.