Questions tagged [adam-smith]
Economic questions that are related to a Scottish economist Adam Smith, the author of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"
17
questions
0
votes
2answers
52 views
Researching the "invisible hand" in academic literature
The idea of the invisible hand could be expressed as: in a competitive market, agents acting selfishly in their own self interests will make choices that benefit others. There are innumerable popular ...
4
votes
0answers
16 views
Understanding Adam Smith's assertion about the incentives of receipt holders and bank money holders
At Chapter III of Book IV of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith makes the following assertion:
Even in ordinary and quiet times, it is in the interest of the holders of receipts to depress the agio, ...
1
vote
1answer
18 views
Why does the prohibition of importing foreign goods mean that the industry should not exceed what it can maintain?
In Chapter II of Book IV of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith makes the following assertion:
To prohibit, by a perpetual law, the importation of foreign corn and cattle, is in reality to enact, that ...
1
vote
1answer
29 views
Why does the transportation of commodities yield a profit but that of gold and silver doesn't?
In Chapter I of Book IV of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith makes the following assertion:
The transportation of commodities, when properly suited to the market, is always attended with a ...
1
vote
1answer
128 views
Did Adam Smith make a calculation error in Chapter XI of Book I?
Excerpt from Chapter XI of The Wealth of Nations (emphasis mine):
The money-price of wool, therefore, in the time of Edward III, was to its money-price in the present times as ten to seven. The ...
2
votes
0answers
29 views
How £800,000 of specie is above what the circulation can employ?
I'm reading this (clicking it will download a PDF, so, do as you find good) analysis of Adam Smith's theory of banking and money. On page 13, the author writes:
For example, Smith
(293) says that if ...
2
votes
1answer
38 views
Prices in 'The Wealth of Nations'
While reading 'The Wealth of Nations', I have come across terms like nominal price, consumer price, actual price, exchange price.
What each means? What is the difference between them?
Note: I am ...
1
vote
1answer
50 views
Is Adam Smith's "stock" an archaic version of "capital"?
In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith uses the word "stock" many times, but not with the meaning we ascribe to it today (supply of an asset, inventory). I take it that he refers to capital, ...
1
vote
1answer
135 views
What does Smith mean by "price of work" in this context?
I've read these excerpts from The Wealth of Nations multiple times:
In reality high profits tend much more to raise the price of work than high wages
In raising the price of commodities the rise of ...
3
votes
0answers
84 views
Was Adam Smith correct about the relative marginal productivities of capital in agriculture, manufacturing, and trade?
Adam Smith (1776):
No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour than that of the farmer.
After agriculture, the capital employed in manufactures puts into motion the ...
3
votes
1answer
102 views
What does Adam Smith mean when he says wages are determined by: "advancing, stationary, or declining state of the society."
I'm reading the Wealth of Nations. Smith explains in Book One that wages for labor are determined not by how wealthy a nation is but rather by its rate of growth. At the end of chapter seven he ...
1
vote
1answer
763 views
In Smith's theory, what is the difference between the "nominal price" vs. "market price" and "real price" vs. "natural price"?
In Adam's Fallacy, Foley writes:
"Smith distinguishes what he calls the nominal price of a commodity (the amount of money for which it exchanges) from the real price of the commodity, the amount of ...
0
votes
0answers
33 views
Is There a Good Companion for Theory of Moral Sentiments
I am reading "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith. There's a lot of technical, and/or dated language. Is there a good companion to read this with?
1
vote
1answer
93 views
Where did Adam Smith write the following and in what context?
Contra the a certain fetishisation of Adam Smiths thought he wrote:
The vile maxim of the masters of mankind: all for ourselves and nothing for other people.
I'm assuming that this is from his ...
2
votes
1answer
533 views
What does Adam Smith mean by equality of condition?
According to Chomsky, Adam Smith distingushes between equality of opportunity and equality of condition and that he supported the latter over the former.
Although I have come across the former term ...
-1
votes
1answer
27 views
Did the word "than" mean something different in The Wealth of Nations? [closed]
What does the last phrase after the last comma in this sentence mean?
And, in the end, the civil magistrate will find that he has dearly
paid for his intended frugality, in saving a fixed ...
1
vote
0answers
46 views
Zero-sum games being converted into positive-sum games
It seems as if "pure, naked self-interest", that is, self-interest without liberty, results often in a zero-sum game. (I'm using the term liberty in a Lockean sense, where it is taken to mean the ...
