Four Central Theories of the Market Economy: conception, evolution and application

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Detailed contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The invisible-hand proposition
The theory of comparative advantage
The law of markets
The quantity theory of money
Further reflections on the four theories
Bibliography
Chapter 1: The invisible-hand proposition
Chapter contents
1. Introduction
2. The theory of market before Adam Smith
2.1. From antiquity to the sixteenth century
2.2. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century
3. Self-love and the invisible hand
3.1. Hobbes’ challenge
3.2. Early responses to Hobbes
3.3. A tale of two literary works
3.4. The economic response
4. Smith’s method of inquiry
5. Smith’s contribution to the economic response
6. Smith and his contemporary philosophers on the invisible hand
7. Self-interest versus benevolence
8. The invisible-hand passages in Smith’s writings
9. Interpretations, qualifications, and objections
9.1. The classical interpretation
9.2. The neoclassical interpretation
9.3. The evolutionary interpretation
10. The invisible hand and the science of complexity
11. A final note
Appendix I: the invisible hand and the theory of natural selection
Appendix II: the invisible hand of science
Appendix III: other interpretations of the invisible hand
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 2: The theory of comparative advantage
Chapter contents
1. Introduction
2. Theories of foreign trade before David Ricardo
2.1. From classical antiquity to the sixteenth century
2.2. The era of mercantilism
2.3. The eighteenth century – laying the foundation
2.4. Henry Martyn
2.5. David Hume
2.6. Adam Smith
3. Formulation and articulation of comparative advantage
3.1. David Ricardo’s model of comparative advantage
3.2. James Mill
3.3. John Stuart Mill
4. Comparative advantage and free trade
5. Extension and evolution of the Ricardian comparative advantage
6. Empirical studies of the Ricardian comparative advantage
7. A final note
Appendix I: a model of comparative advantage based on the writings of Adam Smith
Appendix II: how comparative costs ratios set limits on wages
Appendix III: Mountifort Longfield’s generalization of the Ricardian model
Appendix IV: Haberler’s multi-goods case of comparative advantage
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 3: The law of markets
Chapter contents
1. Introduction
2. Components of the law of markets
3. Before Jean-Baptiste Say
4. The evolution of the law of markets in the nineteenth century
5. The law of markets in the twentieth century
6. A final note
Appendix: components of the law of markets
A1. Andrew Skinner
A2. William Baumol
A3. Steven Kates
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 4: The quantity theory of money
Chapter contents
1. Introduction
2. The quantity theory of money before David Hume
3. Richard Cantillon, Montesquieu, and David Hume
4. Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill
5. Alfred Marshall, Irving Fisher, and Knut Wicksell
6. John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman
7. A final note
Notes
Bibliography
Index