EconLog Archive
Regulation
AI vs the Rent Seekers
Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations doesn’t provide a particularly optimistic picture: once your nation has been stable for a while, and may even have risen to wealth, it becomes more and more vulnerable to “institutional sclerosis.” This happens because small groups are better able to overcome free-riding, resulting in their ability to .. MORE
Monetary Policy
Policy Dominance in Argentina
There are at least two meanings for “dominance” in relation to monetary and fiscal policy. The first one, proposed by Milton Friedman in 1968, is that when monetary policy and fiscal policy are in contradiction, that is, one is expansionary and the other contractionary, the effects of monetary policy tend to prevail. The other meaning, .. MORE
Growth: Consequences
Tech Troubleshooting in Space
When astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to fly around the moon, reported an issue from space that could have been copy-pasted from any IT helpdesk ticket, something clicked for Americans. Her grievance? “No joy seeing the device in the list of available devices when I attempt to re-pair it after doing the Bluetooth forget.” .. MORE
Adam Smith
Of Course We’re Still Reading Wealth of Nations at Econlib
Today, we’re our joint celebration with our friends at Liberty Matters of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In this final essay, Craig Smith asks about Wealth of Nations’ legacy and what we can still get from .. MORE
Adam Smith
The Nations in Wealth of Nations
Much of Adam Smith’s writing in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WN) is concrete. He explores examples of contemporary and ancient economic, political, religious, and military situations to better understand the world he lived in. As a result, his commentary touched on the economic situations of many nations. .. MORE
Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations’ Full Title
Imagine that you spent 250 years being called the wrong name. That’s basically what’s happened to Adam Smith’s treatise. Everyone refers to it as “The Wealth of Nations,” and sure, that’s a reasonable shorthand for those in the know and those who are simply being expedient. But for politicians and pundits, it turns a rigorous .. MORE
Adam Smith
“Very difficult, perhaps altogether impossible”: Smith’s political science at Econlib
We’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In this fifth essay, Jacob T. Levy explores one of Smith’s most famous claims in Book V of Wealth .. MORE
Adam Smith
Adam Smith on Slavery
There were two types of slaves in Scotland during Adam Smith’s lifetime. The first were chattel slaves of African descent. This is what most people envision today when they think about slavery—people who are regarded solely as property with no recourse or relief, even in the face of the most torturous conditions. The second were .. MORE
Adam Smith
Adam Smith and Reciprocal Tariffs
This month marks the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations. The Liberty Fund print edition is 950 pages (excluding material added by the editors) and just about every page is chock full of wisdom. While there are some flaws, we rightfully celebrate this book as the monumental leap forward to .. MORE
Adam Smith
Political Economy as Moral Philosophy at Econlib
We’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In this fourth essay, Brianne Wolf explores Book IV of Wealth of Nations, where Smith discusses the mercantile system, .. MORE
Price Theory
Cutsinger’s Solution: Housing Quantity and Price
Question: Housing is a highly durable good and often lasts for many decades. Consider the housing market in Cleveland. Suppose that in 2026: Cleveland has 250,000 existing homes, all built before the year 2000. Homes never depreciate. No new homes have been built in Cleveland over the past 26 years. The marginal cost of building .. MORE
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations: A Classic of English Literature
The Wealth of Nations is a true classic of English literature. It is just not one that has ever been widely loved or popularly read. When The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776, Thomas Strahan, its publisher, said “the sale … has been more than I could have expected from a work that requires .. MORE
Adam Smith
Why Adam Smith Embraced Commercial Society: The Wealth of Nations, Book 3 at Econlib
We’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In this third essay, Dennis C. Rasmussen explores Book III of Wealth of Nations, where Smith uses a story .. MORE
Adam Smith
Adam Smith on the Labor Theory of Value
There are many things Adam Smith got right about economics, including the discipline’s fundamental insight about the unplanned nature of market-driven economic and social order. He is rightly called the founder of economics for that reason. However, he did not get everything right. One of his most important errors, and one he shared with .. MORE
Adam Smith
Bargaining with the Butcher, Baker, and Brewer: A New Look at Smith’s Most Famous Sentences
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Adam Smith was at best an indifferent Kirk of Scotland churchman, but he would have known these words, which Jesus prescribes to his followers in the Sermon on the Mount, very well. The Lord’s Prayer speaks to one of the most basic questions of human survival. How will we .. MORE
Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations, Book 2: Prudence, Competition, and Party Walls at Econlib
We’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In the second essay, Maria Pia Paganelli explores Book II of Wealth of Nations, which is, she says, about .. MORE
Money and Inflation
The Sacrifice Ratio Puzzle
Inflation began rising in 2021 due to pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and reopening dynamics. The Russia-Ukraine war that started in February 2022 intensified these pressures through a commodity super cycle (a broad and sustained surge in energy and raw material prices) that sent inflationary shockwaves to nearly all major economies, including the U.S., where CPI .. MORE
Adam Smith
Why Does the Division of Labor Matter?
Smith begins An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations with the following claim: “The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division .. MORE
Adam Smith
Innovation and Governance in Book 1 of Wealth of Nations at Econlib
Today at Econlib, we’re joining our friends at Liberty Matters in their celebration of the 250th anniversary of the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations through a series of six weekly essays. In the first of these, Eric Schliesser writes about implications of Adam Smith‘s theory of the division .. MORE
Adam Smith
Happy Birthday, Wealth of Nations
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
Price Theory
EconLog Price Theory: Housing Quantity and Price
This is the latest in our series of posts in our series on price theory problems with Professor Bryan Cutsinger. You can see all of Cutsinger’s problems and solutions by subscribing to his EconLog RSS feed. Share your proposed solutions in the comments. Professor Cutsinger will be present in the comments for the next couple .. MORE