25 Facts About Anthony Downs

Anthony Downs was an American economist specializing in public policy and public administration.

Anthony Downs's research focuses included political choice theory, rent control, affordable housing, and transportation economics.

Anthony Downs wrote a number of books including, An Economic Theory of Democracy and Inside Bureaucracy, which have been major influences on the public choice school of political economy.

Anthony Downs served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, member of faculty at the University of Chicago and a visiting fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco.

Anthony Downs was an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

James Anthony Downs was born on November 21,1930, in Evanston, Illinois.

Anthony Downs's father was the founder of a consulting firm, Real Estate Research Corporation, and a frequent speaker on real estate related topics.

Anthony Downs grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Anthony Downs enlisted in the Navy and served as an intelligence officer when he was drafted.

Anthony Downs quit the service after three years to join his father's consulting firm and briefly served as a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago.

Anthony Downs served as a consultant to many of the nation's largest corporations and public institutions, including the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the White House.

Anthony Downs was an officer or trustee of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Anthony Downs claimed that most voters have incomplete information when voting for political candidates in a democracy, and therefore will resort to economic issues of "how much government intervention in the economy there should be" and how parties will control this.

Anthony Downs borrowed the curve from Harold Hotelling, who developed it to explain how grocery stores targeted customers.

Anthony Downs's book has since become one of the most cited books in political science.

Anthony Downs showed that in democracies the aggregate distribution of political opinion forms a bell-shaped curve, with most voters possessing moderate opinions; he argued that this fact forces political parties in democracies to adopt centrist positions.

In 1962, Anthony Downs published his Anthony Downs's Law of Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion.

Anthony Downs's book, Stuck in Traffic, which detailed the economic disadvantages of traffic congestion and proposed road pricing as the only effective means of alleviating it, was denounced by traffic engineers for its insistence on the futility of congestion relief measures.

Anthony Downs's recommendations are starting to see implementation, largely in the form of high-occupancy toll lanes in the medians of crowded American freeways, and through congestion pricing, already implemented in several cities around the world: Singapore ; London ; Stockholm ; Valletta, Malta; and Milan, Italy.

Anthony Downs joined the Brookings Institution, an American thinktank, in 1977.

Anthony Downs continued his work on housing policies and traffic issues management at the institute.

Anthony Downs was the author or co-author of 24 books and more than 500 articles.

Anthony Downs was a visiting fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco, between 2004 and 2005.

Anthony Downs met his first wife, Mary Katherine Watson, at a high-school prom.

Anthony Downs died of natural causes in Bethesda, Maryland, on October 2,2021.