In mine The Wall Street Journal op/ed to 3 Nobel Prize winners, “Nobel Prize in ‘Inclusive’ Free Market Economics,” published online the afternoon of the award and published the next day, I wrote:
The contribution of the Nobelists is to lay down information about certain economic institutions that have helped or hindered economic growth and then look at the factors that led to those institutions. They point out, as Adam Smith did, that property rights and the law are important.
What I didn’t have room to say, judging by my strong words, is that in their book Why Nations FailDaron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson provided a short shrift on Adam Smith. Look up Smith in the index, and you’ll find one reference. Go to that page and you will see that the reference is to the “invisible hand.” That’s all. There is no mention of institutions, which are a big part of them An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. And there is no mention of it The Treasure of Nations on 17 pages of References.
I was looking through the blurbs on the front of the book this morning and found this one by Niall Ferguson:
Cleverly combining the work of theorists from Adam Smith to Douglass North with the latest research by economic historians, Acemoglu and Robinson have produced an inspiring and highly readable book.
Acemoglu and Robinson discuss recent research by economic historians. The book is compelling and very readable and their bibliography points to the value of Douglass North’s works.
But the writers did not mention the work of Adam Smith. I have given above the only mention of Smith that I could find.
Postscript:
Since writing my op/ed, I came across this piece by Ryan Young of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. It’s very good.
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