What Every PhD Student Should Know About Adam Smith

Abstract

Widely known as the father of economics, Adam Smith lived in the eighteenth century. Smith was a polymath, and his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations , is 250 years old this year. In this article, I suggest the nature of Smith's contribution to economics, moral philosophy, and political science. Scholars participating in these fields today tend to see them as separate domains of inquiry. Not so for Smith. I study three main aspects of Smith's political economics. First is his economics; second is his fresh understanding of the political and economic problems confronting the nations of Western Europe when they were developing; and finally (and more briefly) is his moral theory. As I show, the problems facing developing countries of early modern Europe were not unlike those problems facing today's developing countries. Smith approaches these problems from an integrated perspective.