Episode Twenty Eight

Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar: A History of Economics Podcast

Co-hosts Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak, Gerardo Serra, and Scott Scheall discuss a few recent additions to the literature in the history of economic thought. Topics include the disagreement between Adam Smith and Edmund Burke over the East India Company, the evolving conceptualizations of "poverty" in African languages, and the role that policymakers' epistemic limitations may have played in the current "democratic crisis" in many Western democracies.

If you are inclined to read the papers discussed in this episode, here they are (unfortunately, some may be behind paywalls):

Gregory M. Collins: "THE LIMITS OF MERCANTILE ADMINISTRATION: ADAM SMITH AND EDMUND BURKE ON BRITAIN’S EAST INDIA COMPANY"

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-history-of-economic-thought/article/limits-of-mercantile-administration-adam-smith-and-edmund-burke-on-britains-east-india-company/4003B9E2C8C6175246EBCC68D96C4290

Rhiannon Stephens: "BEREFT, SELFISH, AND HUNGRY: GREATER LUHYIA CONCEPTS OF THE POOR IN PRECOLONIAL EAST AFRICA"

https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/123/3/789/5025220?redirectedFrom=fulltext

François Facchini and Mickael Melki: “THE DEMOCRATIC CRISIS AND THE KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/polp.12330

Here are links to Scott's work that he references in the episode:

"IGNORANCE AND THE INCENTIVE STRUCTURE CONFRONTING POLICYMAKERS"

https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/scheall_ct_vol_7_iss_1_2.pdf

F. A. HAYEK AND THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF POLITICS: THE CURIOUS TASK OF ECONOMICS

https://www.routledge.com/F-A-Hayek-and-the-Epistemology-of-Politics-The-Curious-Task-of-Economics/Scheall/p/book/9781138289956

Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar is supported by a grant from the History of Economics Society: http://historyofeconomics.org