tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740670447258719504.post1185237876675576472..comments2024-03-27T03:00:27.024-04:00Comments on Facts & other stubborn things: First short essay assignmentEvanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12259004160963531720noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740670447258719504.post-90694585397850905672013-09-07T07:18:31.989-04:002013-09-07T07:18:31.989-04:00I did discuss Coase at the last minute (inspired b...I did discuss Coase at the last minute (inspired by his death) on division of labor and its relation to his theory of the firm. Obviously Williamson could have been there as well, but it was just a brief discusion. I'm not sure we're covering stuff in Smith that would have made North and Acemoglu relevant. Same with Demsetz. The connection there, I think, is less obvious. Smith is <i>the</i> theorist of the division of labor, hence modern versions in Krugman and Romer. He is one of the more famous early proponents of what Mandeville called the private vice/public virtue relationship - the social optimality of market exchange - hence modern versions in Vernon Smith and Ken Arrow.<br /><br />Those are the themes we are hitting particularly hard (along with trade and growth, which again circles back to Krugman and Romer), so these were the authors that made sense. He isn't the seminal theorist of property rights or institutions, for example, so I don't think the case is as strong for these guys.<br /><br />Stiglitz and Weiss are on there because we discussed economists' perspectives on interest rates on the first day (just as an illustration of how economic thinking has changed between Aquinas and today). Since they were exposed to that - and the close similarities between what Smith said and what Stiglitz said - I wanted to give them the chance to write about him too.<br /><br />Buchanan was on the list, but I didn't have time in the schedule to talk a whole lot about Smith on government, so I cut him. Otherwise he would have been on there.Daniel Kuehnhttp://www.factsandotherstubbornthings.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740670447258719504.post-29335498206270598632013-09-06T20:03:53.865-04:002013-09-06T20:03:53.865-04:00No Coase/North/Williamson/Demsetz/Acemoglu discuss...No Coase/North/Williamson/Demsetz/Acemoglu discussed as modern-day Smithians?aaronnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740670447258719504.post-66616810516281624642013-09-05T22:05:13.371-04:002013-09-05T22:05:13.371-04:00It seems to me that you want your students to focu...It seems to me that you want your students to focus on specific aspects of the edifice provided in <i>The Wealth of Nations</i>. Will there be any possibility for your students to write essays on Adam Smith's position on money and banking?Blue Aurorahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02044362251868221897noreply@blogger.com