Adam Smith's theory of the gains from trade has caused a great deal of controversy among economic theorists. Throughout much of his work Smith argues that markets efficiently allocate resources. Smith's treatment of the gains from trade, however, is considered inconsistent with his system of...

Evidence of the importance of urban agglomeration and the offsetting effects of congestion are provided in a number of studies of productivity and wages. Little attention has been paid to this evidence in the economic growth literature, where the recent focus is on technological change. We...

Two fundamental issues have been ignored in the convergence debate which are addressed in this paper. First, there has been little attention paid to the development of a general model able to explain convergence a divergence. Second, in the rush to put data to a convergence hypothesis,...

Traditionally, classical theorists assume a constant conventional share of wages in gross output. This assumption, together with fixed proportions, creates endogenous growth via an 'AK' style model. Pasinetti explored this model when the wage is allowed to adjust to ensure full employment. We...