Adam Smith and the Chicago school
Adam Smith’s discussion of the system of natural liberty, its eff ects on the functioning of the market system, and the resultant implications for the economic role of the state has formed the basis for much of the subsequent economic literature analyzing the interplay of market and state. That there is no settled interpretation of this and any number of other aspects of Smith’s work is clear; what is equally clear is that Smith’s ideas have, via particular interpretive turns, been used to support the development of theories and frameworks for the analysis of economic policy. This is interesting for the interpretation given to Smith’s ideas, the uses made of them in light of that, and how both of these factors infl uence the larger professional (and even popular) view of Smith. The present essay examines what may be the most fertile of these uses of Smith in the twentieth century: that associated with the Chicago School.
