Search results for "Adam smith"

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…

Adam Smith and the family

2008

This paper examines Adam Smith’s vision of family life and the role of the family in society as it stems from the Theory of Moral Sentiments. We first discuss textual evidences of Smith’s vision of gender differences and of the relationships between the sexes. Then we turn to TMS’s analysis of marriage and family life, exploring the importance of sentiments in strengthening family bonds and in fostering individuals’ moral education. Then we enlarge our perspective, considering Smith’s view on the role of the family within society, especially as market and non market relationships are concerned. Finally, we focus on Smith’s vision of the possible threats which life in Commercial societies ma…

Smith, Marshall and Young on division of labour and economic growth

2003

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the theory of division of labour and economic growth proposed by Adam Smith and developed by Alfred Marshall and Allyn Young. In their approach division of labour is the main engine of growth and plays a central role in capital accumulation and technological progress. We suggest that, according to their theory: 1) economic growth is endogenous; 2) it has the nature of a cumulative, pathdependent process; and 3) it can be described as a disequilibrium process, supported by competitive forces. We argue that these aspects make the contributions of Smith, Marshall and Young still insightful for the development of growth theory, even in the light of the mo…

The term “political oeconomy” in Adam Smith

2020

This article analyses the use of the term “‘political oeconomy” in the Wealth of Nations, considered by many the founding text of the discipline of Political Economy. It shows that Adam Smith could not accept the use of the term “political oeconomy” that had been made by other authors to indicate the subject matter of his scientific inquiry, devoted to the nature and causes of the wealth of nations; he used the term “political oeconomy” as a synonym for economic policy, especially in the fourth book of the Wealth of Nations. In order to understand this statement, it is necessary to keep in mind the methodological and epistemological perspective developed by Smith; in his view, the inquiry i…

How to pay for the war in times of imperfect commitment. Adam Smith and David Ricardo on the Sinking Fund

2014

AbstractThe paper proposes a comparative analysis of Smith's and Ricardo's views on the sinking fund. It shows that Smith and Ricardo agreed in stressing the ineffectiveness of the sinking fund as a policy instrument targeted at public debt repayment and tax-burden relief, pointing out that its actual workings had paradoxically helped to increase rather than reduce British total debt-load. Moreover, their explanation of the sinking fund paradox integrates a defective fiscal commitment technology with powerful politicians’ incentives to siphon off the money stored in the sinking fund to meet sudden increases of public expenditure whenever the occasion arose.

Adam Smith and the Law

2013

Palermo Symposium: Cross-disciplinary studies on Adam Smith’s Language and Translated Works in F. Forman (ed.), The Adam Smith Review, vol. 13 (1st e…

2023

This chapter lists five works by scholars belonging to different fields history, economics, language and translation studies. About fifty scholars from all over the world, interested in studying the international reception of Smithian thought, took part in the meeting at Palermo to share their ideas, methods, sources and knowledge. In “Economy” and “Political Economy” in the Theory of moral sentiments and the wealth of nations, Luigi Alonzi analyses the semantic evolution of the word ‘oeconomy’ and the term ‘political oeconomy’ in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by investigating their use in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations.

Adam Smith and Gaetano Filangieri. Two alternatives face of enlightenment science of legislator

2017

The article proposes a comparison between the thought and works of Adam Smith and Gaetano Filangieri, two of the greatest exponents of European Enlightenment. We can find some important coincidences in their profiles. Smith and Filangieri met with outstanding international success and their works were translated into most known languages. Both were the main representative scholars of their respective schools: Scottish and the Neapolitan. Each of them planned to write a great work concerning the science of legislator but they died before completing it. Despite these resemblances, a deep difference is evident in their thought which makes their works paradigmatic of two different scientific vi…

Law and the invisible hand. A theory of Adam Smith's Jurisprudence

2023

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.