Adam Smith and Malthus on high wages

Waterman, A. M. C.

doi:10.1080/09672567.2010.501110

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…At the root of this incoherence is an assumption that Smith shared with his predecessors in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century political oeconomy: that population and work force respond passively to the investment decisions of masters-an assumption strongly challenged by Malthus and all his successors in the English School (Waterman 2012 ). Smith conceived the latter to be "regulated" by the rate of economic growth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(b) The Natural Wage I have previously considered Smith's wage theory in some detail, and in particular as it relates to Robert Malthus's (Waterman 2012 ). For the latter, Smith's recipe for high wages would be defeated by diminishing returns; and the best remedy for that would be "moral restraint."…”

Section: The Problem Explicated (A) Price Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Let that fraction be defi ned as the degree of parsimony , π where 0 ≤ π ≤ 1, as used in previous modeling of Smith's growth theory (Waterman 2009(Waterman , 2012(Waterman , 2013 ; see also Eltis 2000 , p. 94, equation 3.9). Let that fraction be defi ned as the degree of parsimony , π where 0 ≤ π ≤ 1, as used in previous modeling of Smith's growth theory (Waterman 2009(Waterman , 2012(Waterman , 2013 ; see also Eltis 2000 , p. 94, equation 3.9).…”

Section: (C) Parsimonymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Is There Another, Quite Different, “Adam Smith Problem”?

Waterman

2014

J Hist Econ Thought

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Division of labor is thought to imply increasing returns to scale, which in turn implies that wages rise continually with economic growth. Yet the price theory of Wealth of Nations rests upon the assumption that the “natural” price of labor (and capital) is determined at any steady-state rate of balanced growth. There would seem, therefore, to be an irreconcilable contradiction between Smith’s exposition of the division of labor in Book I, chapters 1 to 3, and his price theory as set out in Book I, chapters 6 to 9.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Problem Explicated (A) Price Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (C) Parsimonymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is There Another, Quite Different, “Adam Smith Problem”?

Waterman

2014

J Hist Econ Thought

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“…Was Smith's optimistic account of growth with high wages doomed to defeat by land scarcity and diminishing returns (Waterman 2012)? And was Smith's labour theory of value in the 'early and rude state of society' (WN I.vi) a better starting point for price theory than his cost-of-production theory in the next chapter?…”

Section: Smith and Economicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral Philosophy or Economic Analysis?The Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith

Waterman¹

2015

Review of Political Economy

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“…Aside from Jones's study of Young, students of the history of economic thought are well served this year. Adam Smith, as usual, remains the most studied individual theorist with articles by Aspromourgos, Hill, Peaucelle, and Waterman. Smith's Scottish contemporary James Steaurt is the subject of Bentemessek's interesting article, which examines Steaurt's ideas about public credit in his 1767 Inquiry into the principles of political economy , particularly as they were explored in his analysis of the South Sea and Mississippi bubbles.…”

Section: –1850mentioning

confidence: 99%