Adam Smith on the subordination of wage-earners in the commercial society

Abstract

Adam Smith's discourse on wage labour is both original for its time and complex. While Smith indisputably considered the substitution of serfdom by wage labour as an improvement in both opulence and independence, we argue that he nevertheless saw the wage relationship as one founded on subordination. We then cast light on the material factors and symbolic mechanisms which, in his writings, explain how and why the worker agrees to this subordination. Finally, we endeavour to show that Smith's praise for the system of natural liberty as well as his repeated criticisms of merchants and capital owners aimed to transcend this issue.     

How did it all begin? Adam Smith on the early and rude state of society and the age of hunters

Abstract

Scholars tend to examine Smith's historical approach as a whole from the perspective of the four stages theory. This leads to a neglect of Smith's ability to use history in different ways as his different purposes require. This article distinguishes Smith's recourse to primitive society with respect to his purposes in Wealth of Nations and in Lectures on Jurisprudence. In the former, Smith analyses the capitalist economy, thereby laying emphasis on capital and the division of labour in his account of wealth. In the latter, he explains the evolution of institutions in order to challenge contractarian accounts of government.     

A calm investigation into Mr Ricardo's principles of international trade

Abstract

This paper deals with some difficulties presented by Ricardo's texts on international trade, taking seriously Ricardo's account of the systematic interaction of real and monetary phenomena. After a brief reassessment of the main features of Ricardo's views on foreign trade, some basic questions are examined, concerning the method of analysis and the alleged invalidity of the labour theory of value at the international level. The enquiry goes on to state that, for Ricardo, there are no significant differences between domestic and international exchanges, and on this basis, proposes a simple and general rule explaining the flows of trade. The “principle of comparative advantage” and the “gains from trade” thus appear as simple unintended consequences of the decisions of agents in free markets. Finally, the characteristics of an international equilibrium and the nature and impact of destabilising shocks are analysed.     

An Archaeology of Adam Smith's Epistemic Context

Abstract

Adam Smith played a key role in Foucault's archaeology of political economy. This archaeology, which Foucault accomplished in The Order of Things, is the focus of this article. Foucault may have disagreed with the writings of the classical political economists but he widens our perspective through new possibilities of understanding. It is very illuminating to understand Smith's thinking as following a discursive practice that economic thought shared with the knowledge of living beings (natural history) and language (grammar). Foucault's archaeology highlights some ontological and epistemological conditions that shed light on some of the pillars of Smith's thinking: the centrality of exchange, the division of labour and the labour theory of value. The proximity between Newton and Smith is also examined in ontological and epistemological terms which can be understood through an investigation of that interdiscursivity practice. Beyond testing Foucault's considerations, our aim is to demonstrate their potential for the current scholarship of Smith's works. Foucault's archaeology of knowledge offers a range of elements that warrants greater analysis by historians of economic thought.     

Do stricter penalties deter drinking and driving? An empirical investigation of Canadian impaired driving laws

In this paper I attempt to assess empirically the effects of Canadian impaired driving legislation enacted between 1976 to 1992. On average, penalties for impaired driving have limited impact on impaired driver fatalities. Instead, trends in impaired driver deaths are significantly correlated with the enactment of mandatory seatbelt legislation across provinces. Specifically, the implementation of mandatory seatbelt laws for drivers is significantly associated with a 27 per cent drop in impaired driver fatality rates. These findings suggest that more lives might be saved by focusing on initiatives aimed at enhancing vehicle safety. JEL Classification: H7, I1 Est‐ce que des punitions plus sévères découragent la conduite en état d'ébriété? Une étude empirique des lois canadiennes sur l'ivresse au volant. Ce texte tente de mesurer empiriquement les effets des lois sur l'ivresse au volant mises en place au Canada entre 1976 et 1992. En général, les punitions pour ivresse au volant ont eu un impact limité sur le nombre de décès de conducteurs en état d'ébriété. D'autre part, les tendances dans le nombre de décès de conducteurs en état d'ébriété sont reliées à la mise en place de législations obligeant le port de la ceinture de sécurité par les provinces. On peut dire que la mise en place de lois sur le port obligatoire de la ceinture de sécurité est associée à une chute de 27 pour‐cent dans le nombre de décès de conducteurs en état d'ébriété. Ces résultats suggèrent que beaucoup plus vies pourraient être épargnées en mettant l'accent sur des mesures qui amélioreraient la sécurité des véhicules.     

Social assistance and labour supply

The longitudinal, 1988–89 LMAS makes it possible to study the interaction between social assistance and labour supply while allowing for substantial time dependence. Tobit equations for hours worked on and off social assistance, which allow for endogenous selection of social assistance status, are estimated by using FIML. Small, but statistically significant, effects for a social assistance benefit variable are obtained, particularly for females. A claw‐back variable is not consistently useful. The wage rate has a consistently negative coefficient in the selection equations and is important in the Tobit equations. In this paper an attempt is made to reconcile results found in earlier literature. JEL Classification: I38, J22 Aide sociale et offre de travail. L'étude longitudinale de l'Enquête de 1988‐89 sur la population active rend possible l'étude de l'interaction entre l'aide sociale et l'offre de travail tout en permettant la prise en compte de l'effet d'inertie hérité du passé. On calibre des équations Tobit pour les heures travaillées séparément pour les personnes qui reçoivent et ne reçoivent pas d'aide sociale et une équation probit qui permet une sélection endogène du statut d'assisté social en utilisant la méthode du maximum de vraisemblance avec pleine information. On obtient des impacts faibles mais statistiquement significatifs des prestations d'aide sociale sur l'offre de travail pour les femmes. Une variable qui tente de capturer les effets de recouvrement fiscal des prestations n'est pas uniformément utile comme source d'explication. Le taux de salaire a un coefficient négatif de manière générale dans les équations de sélection et est important dans les équations Tobit. Le mémoire tente de réconcilier ces résultats avec ceux que contiennent les études antérieures.     

Say's involvement in the 1819 French edition of Ricardo's Principles and the issue of rent

This paper focuses on Say's contribution to the first French edition of Ricardo's Principles and on the analytical consequences of his involvement on the issue of rent. Part one investigates the “story” of this edition. It stresses Say's friendship with the translator, his involvement in this publication and his attitude toward Ricardo. Part two analyses how elements from Say's thought were introduced into Ricardo's theory of rent through this edition. These elements conveyed ideas which were definitely at odds with Ricardo's theory and misrepresented Ricardo's true concept of differential rent which was central to his theory.     

Ricardo's discovery of comparative advantage revisited: a critique of Ruffin's account

Abstract

In an influential paper, Ruffin has attempted to reconstruct the circumstances of Ricardo's discovery of the law of comparative advantage. Ruffin's paper has inspired a number of further contributions on the precise nature, logical structure, and analytical significance of Ricardo's formulation of the law of comparative advantage. This paper re-examines Ruffin's reconstruction, and in particular his interpretation of Ricardo's three letters of October 1816 and suggests that it lacks textual and contextual support.     

Keynes,Ricardo and the classical theory of interest

Keynes made harsh and repeated attacks on the work of Ricardo, blaming him particulary for what Keynes called the ‘classical theory’ of interest. Garegnani and others argue that Keynes' criticisms of the classical theory of interest apply to later neoclassical writers, but not to Ricardo. This paper re-examines Keynes' criticisms. It argues that Keynes attacked Ricardoapos;s theory of interest despite his awareness that Ricardo did not hold the ‘classical theory’. Moreover, Keynes not only expressed sympathy for Ricardo's understanding of interest, but his criticisms which do apply to Ricardo do not address Ricardo's theory of interest.     

Marx on Ricardo: an explanation of some important misunderstandings

Ricardo's theory of value and distribution is reconstructed by proceeding along the lines of Marx's critique of Ricardo. It is thus an anti-critique of Marx's reading of Ricardo. The chapter ‘On Value’ in Ricardo's Principles is shown to be a consistent and rigorous treatment of the determinants of prices of production. According to Ricardo labor-values merely serve to approximate more elaborate standards of value. Marx's criticism is shown to rest crucially on his own misinterpretation of Ricardo's definitions and presupposes his own – faulty – theory of surplus value. Therefore Ricardo's theory can – contrary to Marx's theory of surplus value – still be regarded as a fruitful complement to Sraffa's model.     

Alfred Marshall's use of Adam Smith: Coming to grips with an aspect of Alfred Marshall's citation practice

Abstract

This paper outlines Marshall's use of Smith's writings in his own published work as an aspect of Marshall's citation practice and to demonstrate Marshall's great admiration for Smith as economist. Section 2 reviews the Smith citations in Marshall's Principles of Economics', section 3 those in Marshall's other published work. The conclusion notes that this citation practice matches Marshall's great admiration Smith the economist, because of Smith's great ability to blend fact and theory, for drawing measured conclusions and, above all, for constructing useful arguments in a field of imprecise knowledge.     

Theological themes in Ricardo's papers and correspondence

Abstract

I review evidence from published and unpublished sources on Ricardo's theological ideas. The main focuses of interest are the existence of a natural morality independent of religious confessions, morality as the essence of religion, uselessness of theological speculation, justification of toleration for everybody, including atheists, and the miscarriage of any attempt at a philosophical theodicy. The paper explores also the connection between Ricardo's interest for theodicy and his views on the scope and method of political economy and suggests that his opinion that political economy should be a secular and value-free science close to mathematics depends precisely on theological reasons.     

David Ricardo: on the art of “elucidating economic principles” in the face of a “labyrinth of difficulties”

Abstract

The paper discusses David Ricardo's analytical achievements. These concern his approach to the theory of value and distribution; his analysis of the effects of different forms of technical progress on income distribution; his analysis of exhaustible resources in terms of differential rent; his discussion of machinery and induced technical progress; and his theory of foreign trade and the principle of comparative advantage. It is argued that Ricardo's analysis has been frequently misrepresented and is a great deal more sophisticated than is commonly acknowledged. There are still ideas in his writings that have yet to be fully explored.     

Adam Smith's use of multiple references for his pin making example∗

Abstract

At the beginning of The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith describes a pin factory. It is widely accepted that this example comes from Diderot's Encyclopaedia, published in France in the 18th century. The details in the text together with the conferences previously given in Glasgow clearly show that this one reference cannot be the only source. Three other French publications on pin making may also have been used as references for Adam Smith's text. Phrase by phrase these texts are compared to Smith's to support the assertion that he based his work on four previous French publications. The Wealth of Nations unites and synthesizes these different sources and excerpts those parts that confirm his theory. Smith should have listed his sources.     

Property rights, labour markets, and efficiency in a transition economy: the case of rural China

We investigate the consequences of imperfect factor market development for farm efficiency in North China. We estimate the extent to which an inverse relationship in farm productivity can be attributed to the administrative (as opposed to market) allocation of land, combined with unevenly developed off–farm opportunities. Using a new household survey, we find considerable inefficiency in the use of labour. This inefficiency is alleviated by external labour markets and, to a limited degree, by administrative reallocations. The reallocations do not go far enough, however, which raises important questions about constraints on rental activity and property rights formation more generally. JEL Classification: Q15, O12 Droits de propriété, marchés du travail et efficacité dans une économie en transition : le cas de la Chine rurale. Ce mémoire analyse les conséquences du développement de marchés imparfaits des facteurs de production sur l’efficacité des fermes dans le nord de la Chine. On examine jusqu’à quel point la relation inverse entre la productivité des fermes et leur taille est attribuable à l’allocation administrative de la terre (par opposition à l’allocation par le marché), en combinaison avec le développement inégal des opportunités en dehors de la ferme. Les auteurs utilisent une nouvelle enquête sur les ménages qui révèle une grande inefficacité dans l’utilisation du travail. Cette inefficacité est atténuée par des marchés de travail externes, et, à un moindre degré, par des ré–allocations administratives. Les ré–allocations ne vont pas assez loin cependant. Voilà qui soulève des questions importantes à propos des contraintes sur les activités de location et la formation des droits de propriété en général.     

Reading Sraffa's Indices – a note *

Piero Sraffa took thirteen years to publish the General Indexto The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo.The Index is compared to others and is shown to be exceptional in that it leads the way to specific interpretations of Ricardo's life and theory. The choice of entries referring to theory is based on Ricardo's own concepts and carefully avoids neoricardian, Marxian and neoclassical terms. Examples discussed concern ‘comparative advantage’ and ‘value’ The entries referring to Ricardo's life are proof of Sraffa's broad historical interests and focus on certain characteristics of Ricardo.     

Self-employment dynamics and self-employment trends: a study of Canadian men and women, 1982–1998

Self‐employment has risen dramatically in Canada, accounting for a disproportionate share of job growth since the 1980s. Using hitherto unexploited information on labour force transitions from sixteen waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances between 1982 and 1998, we show that the changes in transition patterns underlying these increases were very different for women and men. For women, most of the increase in self‐employment is attributable to an increase in retention rates in self‐employment. For men, most is attributable to a decrease in the stability of paid employment. Self‐employment thus rose both in secularly improving (women's) and deteriorating (men's) labour markets. JEL Classification: J23, J63 Dynamique et tendances du travail autonome: une étude des hommes et des femmes au Canada, 1982–1998. Le travail autonome a augmenté dramatiquement au Canada et a été une source relativement importante de la croissance des emplois dans les années 1980. En utilisant des données qu'on n'avait pas utilisées auparavant sur seize transitions dans l'expérience de travail (données obtenues par les Enquêtes sur les finances des consommateurs entre 1982 et 1998), les auteurs montrent que les changements dans les patterns de transition qui soustendent cet accroissement dans le travail autonome sont très différents pour les hommes et les femmes. Pour les femmes, le gros de l'accroissement est attribuable à un accroissement du taux de rétention d'emploi dans le travail autonome. Pour les hommes, le gros de l'accroissement est attribuable à un déclin dans la stabilité de l'emploi rémunéré. Le travail autonome croît donc à la fois dans les secteurs où le marché du travail a le vent dans les voiles (pour les femmes) et dans ceux où le marché du travail se détériore (pour les hommes).     

Jacob Viner on Adam Smith: Development and reception of a theological reading

Abstract

Jacob Viner was one of the most important interpreters of Adam Smith's work, particularly for his emphasis in a classic 1927 article on Smith's theological framework, his discussion of the relationship between the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations and dismantling of a popular view of Smith as a doctrinaire advocate of laissez-faire. What is less well known is that Viner's theological reading of Smith developed over the next 40 years through intense study of eighteenth century natural theology, and some of his views changed. This article traces the development of Viner's interpretation of Smith. It assesses the suggestion of D.D. Raphael that Smith moved away from a theological framework over time and that Viner repudiated his theological reading of Smith. I argue instead that Viner's mature work broadened and strengthened the theological reading. Much of the literature on Smith and Viner wrongly assumes that naturalistic explanation and theological frameworks are mutually exclusive. This may be the dominant twentieth century view, but it was not so in the eighteenth century, as Viner well understood.