China's rise drives a growing impact of China on economics. So far, this mainly works via the force of example, but there is also an emerging role of Chinese thinking in economics. This paper raises the question how far Chinese perspectives can affect certain foundational principles in...

A sample of 299 U.S. economics professors, presumably random, responded to our survey which asked favorites in the following areas: Economic thinkers (pre-twentieth century, twentieth century now deceased, living age 60 or older, living under age 60), economics journals, and economics blogs....

This document offers an English translation of remarks that Pierre-Samuel Dupont de Nemours made in 1809, remarks principally about Adam Smith. Dupont suggests repeatedly that Adam Smith fudged some points in The Wealth of Nations, because, says Dupont, Smith “thought that in order to maintain...

Adam Smith’s outlook still inspires and informs modern sensibilities and argumentation. It is of interest beyond Smith aficionados whether a particular line of modern thought “fits” Smith. One important such dispute involves recent “left Smithian” writers who argue that he was more...

For Smith, “defence” is presented as one of the three big areas requiring the “expenses of the sovereign or Commonwealth”, and therefore justifying state intervention in the economy, beside “justice” and “public works and public institutions”. Against the mercantilist thought,...

This article as a sequel to Song (1995), 'Adam Smith as an early pioneer of institutional individualism', aims to depict what Smith's conception of social relations of production looks like, and draws a tentative conclusion that when grasped in the whole context of Smith's system of social...

Because economic affairs involve individual action, they must be understood on the basis of a theory which is both subjective, depending on a conception of individual decision-making and especially private interest, and objective, demonstrating how the objective forces of a system of interaction...

Adam Smith justified the contemporary usury laws and was severely criticised by Bentham and most modern writers with the important exception of J.M. Keynes. We argue that pace Bentham, Smith did not intend to preclude loan financing of all 'risky' ventures and give a 'monopoly' to safe...

This paper first considers the character of Smith's account of division of labour as a theory of technical progress. In so far as Smith's account does entail a vision of liberal or competitive commercial society as exhibiting ongoing technical progress, this must have implications for income...

The paper discusses the analyses of technical progress, capital accumulation and income distribution elaborated by three major classical economists: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx. The interpretation given is partly inspired by Piero Sraffa's studies in his hitherto unpublished papers....