'What are the economic lessons from Mahanthma Gandhi’s independence leadership in India' was a question directed to me in the 'All Expert’s' Economic Forum. This question was unique and leads to the integration of a social achievement in the foreground, with its economic implications in the...

I investigate the conjecture (proposed by his namesake Vernon L. Smith) that Adam Smith was afflicted by Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. I summarize the evidence confirming this conjecture. Concluding that on balance there is considerable evidence supporting Smith’s...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of economic informality and its application in the rural context of developing and transitional economies, applying Keith Hart's (1987) notion of informality as a 'remedial concept'. Some remedy is needed to make sense of the many 'palpable...

This paper is a survey of the thirteen journal articles and notes that Paul Samuelson published prior to the defense of doctoral dissertation in 1941. These publications cover a wide range of topics - the theory of consumer behavior and measurement of utility, international trade, capital...

In recent work Philip Mirowski and Rob Van Horn have made a number of important revisionist claims regarding the history of the 'Chicago School.' The claims involve the role of F.A. Hayek in creating the School, the reasons behind some changes of views of members of the School on policy matters,...

In 1958 Jacob Mincer pioneered an important approach to understand earnings distribution. In the years since Mincer's seminal work, he as well as his students and colleagues extended the original human capital model, reaching important conclusions about a whole array of observations pertaining...

Neoclassical economists of the current era frequently pay lip service to Adam Smith’s theories to certify the validity of natural-laws-based, laissez-faire policies. However, neoclassical theories are fundamentally disconnected from Adam Smith’s notion of value, his understanding of the...