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Book Review
A Book Review of Adam Smith in Toulouse and Occitania: The Unknown Years, by Alain Alcouffe and Philippe Massot-Bordenave.1 Adam Smith in Toulouse and Occitania: The Unknown Years is not a book for everyone. It is not an introduction to the life or the works of Adam Smith. It is not even a traditional biography .. MORE
Article
Image of Adam Smith in the style of Cezanne. Generated by DALL-E OpenAI software, based on public domain material. Many scholars, especially from other disciplines, have voiced concerns regarding a simplified interpretation of Adam Smith’s ideas in modern economics, asserting that it has been exploited to advance a particular free market ideology. For example, in .. MORE
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“Far more important to Smith’s work is the belief that ordinary people normally understand their own interests without help from politicians or professional philosophers.” “The Wealth of Nations is a stupendous palace erected upon the granite of self-interest.”1 So wrote George Stigler, and he represents the majority view over the last two centuries. But the .. MORE
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econtalk-podcast
Adam Smith, portrayed in video production, An Animal that Trades. In the original version of a now classic thought experiment, five people are about to be killed by a runaway trolley. Would you divert the trolley knowing that your choice will kill a single innocent bystander? Listen as Michael Munger of Duke University argues that Adam Smith gave .. MORE
econtalk-podcast
Is the United States victimized by trade? What causes trade deficits? Are higher tariffs a good idea? Can manufacturing jobs return to the United States? Economist Doug Irwin of Dartmouth College answers these questions and more in this wide-ranging conversation with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts.
Adam Smith
Today marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith‘s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations on March 9, 1776. Wealth of Nations remains a remarkable book, not only establishing Adam Smith as “the father of economics” but laying a part of the foundation for liberal political theory. The .. MORE
Tariffs
Shortly after the “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced back in April, Janet Bufton wrote an excellent post about whether or not Adam Smith would approve of those so-called “reciprocal” tariffs. I also riffed off her post here. In both cases, we argued these tariffs were not compliant with Smith’s argument and thus he would not .. MORE
Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.
Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was first published in 1776. This edition of Smith’s work is based on Edwin Cannan’s careful 1904 compilation (Methuen and Co., Ltd) of Smith’s fifth edition of the book (1789), the final edition in Smith’s lifetime. Cannan’s preface and introductory remarks .. MORE
Since the first publication of theTheory Of Moral Sentiments, which was so long ago as the beginning of the year 1759, several corrections, and a good many illustrations of the doctrines contained in it, have occurred to me. But the various occupations in which the different accidents of my life necessarily involved me, have till .. MORE
For over a decade, Russ Roberts has been covering both sides of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) debate. A recent EconTalk episode is optimistically called “Why AI Is Good for Humans (with Reid Hoffman).” Another booster episode was “Marc Andreessen on Why AI Will Save the World.” In the opposite corner: the infamous doomer Eliezer Yudkowsky .. MORE
Should we worry about the human future in a world of AI? Reid Hoffman is unafraid and even optimistic. He argues that the brave new world that awaits is going to be great for humanity. Listen as he talks about his book Superagency with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts and argues that the future is bright not just for .. MORE
VIDEO
Recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Milton Friedman (1912-2006) has long been recognized as one of our most important economic thinkers and a leader of the Chicago school of economics. He is the author of many books and articles in economics, including A Theory of the Consumption Function and A Monetary History .. MORE
VIDEO
A professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and a primary figure in Chicago School Economics and in the field of Law and Economics, Harold Demsetz has contributed original research on the theory of the firm, regulation in markets, industrial organization, antitrust policy, transaction costs, externalities, and .. MORE
Econlib Videos
Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time
The Reading Lists by Topic pages contain some suggested readings organized by topic, including materials available on Econlib. Brief reviews or descriptions are included for many items.
Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.
These free resources are appropriate for teachers of high school and AP economics, social studies, and history classes. They are also appropriate for interested students, home schoolers, and newcomers to the topic of economics.
Division of labor combines specialization and the partition of a complex production task into several, or many, sub-tasks. Its importance in economics lies in the fact that a given number of workers can produce far more output using division of labor compared to the same number of workers each working alone. Interestingly, this is true .. MORE
On the topic of international trade, the views of economists tend to differ from those of the general public. There are three principal differences. First, many noneconomists believe that it is more advantageous to trade with other members of one’s nation or ethnic group than with outsiders. Economists see all forms of trade as equally .. MORE
For more than two centuries economists have steadfastly promoted free trade among nations as the best trade policy. Despite this intellectual barrage, many “practical” men and women continue to view the case for free trade skeptically, as an abstract argument made by ivory tower economists with, at most, one foot on terra firma. These practical .. MORE
-Ludwig von Mises
-Adam Smith Full Quote >>
-F. A. Hayek