Search results for "jel:B12"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
L'analyse de la monnaie et de la finance par David Hume : conventions, promesses, régulations
2008
De l’apport de David Hume a l’analyse economique, un aspect est generalement retenu : son approche presumee quantitative de la monnaie. Or, lorsqu’on resitue l’examen des relations monetaires et financieres a l’interieur de son corpus philosophique, il revele d’autres perspectives. Selon Hume, le processus de civilisation institue certaines fictions, qui permettent aux individus de forger un ordre symbolique. Dans une economie de marche, la distinction entre la monnaie – de nature conventionnelle – et les engagements financiers – assimiles a des promesses – est centrale. Alors que les conventions monetaires autorisent de multiples agencements, les engagements financiers doivent etre etroite…
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…
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.