Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

A Reply to Daniel Klein on Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand

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*Gavin Kennedy* is Emeritus Professor, Heriot-Watt University, with 33 years teaching experience in economics, defence economics, public finance, and business negotiation, at Brunel (1970-2), Strathclyde (1972-82), and Heriot-Watt (1982-2005) universities

Abstract

The May 2009 issue of this journal featured a two-part exchange between myself and Daniel Klein on the meaning and significance of the expression “invisible hand” in the writings of Adam Smith. In his comment on my piece, Klein imputed much larger, and, in my view, extraneous meaning to it. Here I conclude the exchange by responding to Klein’s comment.

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Volume (Issue)
Pages
374-388
Published
JEL classification
A13, B0, B1
Keywords
Adam Smith, invisible hand, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Wealth of Nations, metaphor, myth
Article Downloads (all formats)
3770 since Sep 2009

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