Search results for " Adam Smith"
showing 9 items of 9 documents
The Classical Notion of Competition Revisited
2013
This article seeks to fill a lacuna within classical economics concerning the process of market price determination in situations of market disequilibrium. To this aim, first we distinguish the classical notion of free competition from the Walrasian notion of perfect competition and we argue that the latter is beset with some theoretical difficulties alien to the former. Second, we reconstruct in some detail Smith’s and Marx’s views concerning market price determination and show that Marx’s extensive use of metaphors and numerical examples foreshadows the modern taxonomy of buyers’ market, sellers’ market, and mixed strategy equilibrium in the capacity space of a standard Bertrand duopoly m…
L'Economista Anglofilo. Paolo Balsamo e l'utopia liberale in Sicilia (1787-1816)
2023
Paolo Balsamo -economist and professor of University of Palermo from 1787 to 1812- was a traveller and expert in the most advanced and modern British and European agriculture. He wrote articles and essays, both in English and Italian, on agriculture and political economy and was a correspondent of important cultural and political circles of British Whiggism. As a member of the Sicilian Parliament, ideologist of the constitutional party and trusted collaborator of Lord Bentinck, he wrote the Sicilian Constitution of 1812 which reformed the old institution of the Kingdom of Sicily transforming it into a liberal State. This monography explores Balsamo's intellectual and political figure throug…
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: ADAM SMITH’S THEORY OF SENTIMENTAL LAW AND ECONOMICS
2020
For Adam Smith, a crime is not the result of a rational calculation of loss and gain but the consequence of envy and a vain desire to parade wealth to attract the approbation of others, combined with a natural systematic bias in overestimating the probability of success. Similarly, Smith does not conceive of legal sanctions as a rational deterrent but as deriving from the feeling of resentment. While the prevailing approach of the eighteenth century is a rational explanation of crime and a utilitarian use of punishment, Adam Smith instead builds his theory of criminal behavior and legal prosecution consistently on the sentiments. A well-functioning legal system is thus an unintended consequ…
Smithian Growth and Complexity
2016
In this paper we argue that Adam Smith’s theory of division and labor and economic growth, in particular through the developments of Alfred Marshall, Allyn Young and Nicholas Kaldor, has characteristics that allow to classify it in the realm of complexity economics. We support this claim by a historical reconstruction of the Smithian growth theory highlighting the characteristics that we show also characterize complex systems. We compare this perspective with the one developed by the traditional economic approach, rooted in general equilibrium, and describe a simple alternative model
Natural and market prices
2015
The entry investigates the distinction between natural and market prices within Ricardo's economics. It also discusses the analytical similarities and differences between Smith and Ricardo on this issue.
La "società commerciale" e il tema della corruzione nel dibattito del XVIII secolo.
2018
La tradizione repubblicana, a partire da Machiavelli, pone la corruzione come l'elemento disgregatore della convivenza civile, la cui diffusione conduce al prevalere del vantaggio del singolo sul bene della comunità e alla perdita di libertà dei cittadini. La riflessione su virtù e corruzione nei secoli XVII e XVIII assume sempre più rilievo a seguito dell'affermarsi di una moderna economia di mercato e della transizione verso forme più avanzate di capitalismo. Tale dibattito giunge al suo più maturo compimento nel tardo illuminismo quando il tema della società commerciale - l'espressione con cui Adam Smith definisce quelle organizzazioni sociali fondate sul mercato- impone un ripensamento …
Adam Smith on Monopoly Theory. Making good a lacuna
2014
This article analyses Adam Smith's views on monopoly by focusing on Book IV and V of The Wealth of Nations. It argues that the majority of scholars have assessed Smith's analysis of monopoly starting from premises different from those, actually though implicitly, used by Smith. We show that Smith makes use of the word 'monopoly' to refer to a heterogeneous collection of market outcomes, besides that of a single seller market, and that Smith's account of monopolists' behaviour is richer than that provided by later theorists. We also show that Smith was aware of the growth-retarding effect of monopoly and urged State regulation. © 2014 Scottish Economic Society.
Paolo Balsamo, Smithianism and the Birth of Liberalism in Sicily
2020
The article focuses on the transition process of Sicily, between the end of 18th century and the beginning of 19th, from the Ancien Regime to a modern society, underlining the intellectual and political role of the Sicilian economist Paolo Balsamo. The professor of Agriculture and Economics at University of Palermo founded the Sicilian liberalism on Adam Smith’s works and tried to reform the institutions of the island aiming to make them the model of a Smithian nation. The article analyses Balsamo’s work by highlighting the interlacement of culture, social interests and political emergencies, all of which had an effect on how Smithianism was adopted in Sicily.