inside me wall street journal An editorial about three Nobel Prize winners, “Nobel Prize in Economics for “Inclusive” Free Markets” was published online the afternoon of the award and in print the next day, and I wrote:
The Novelists’ contribution is to uncover empirical data on specific economic institutions that promoted or inhibited economic growth, and to investigate the factors that led to those institutions. They point out, as Adam Smith did, that property rights and the rule of law are key.
There are things in their book that I didn’t have room to say because of the strict limitations of my language. why countries failDaron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson were cut short. adam smith. Searching for Smith in the index yields one reference. If you visit that page, you’ll see that it mentions the “invisible hand.” that’s it. Organization is not mentioned, but it is an important part. Investigation into the nature and causes of national wealth. and nothing is said about it national wealth Found on page 17 of the bibliography.
This morning, as I was looking at the introduction to the book, I came across this passage by Niall Ferguson:
Masterfully integrating the work of theorists from Adam Smith to Douglas North with recent empirical work by economic historians, Acemoglu and Robinson have produced a compelling and highly readable book.
Acemoglu and Robinson discuss recent empirical work by economic historians. The book is compelling and highly readable, with bibliographical essays that reference many of Douglas North’s works.
However, the authors did not mention Adam Smith’s work. Above is the only mention of Smith that I could find.
postscript:
Since I wrote the op-ed, I found this piece By Ryan Young of Competitive Enterprise Institute. That’s wonderful.
