The Economist

important key assumptions of environmental economics, it assumes externalities and optimizes efficiency in the environment. However, the main assumptions neoclassical have is that resources are infinite or can be substituted, whereas the environmental economists are not certain that the market forces will protect environmental services until the proper valuation and externalities are established. In addition, neoclassical science research program is critical about government intervention, in…

and author of The Wealth of Nations, which Heilbroner considers as a revolutionary piece in shaping the study of economics. He continues to argue that Smith is one of the most important figures in economic philosophy with the quote, “Perhaps no economist will ever again so utterly encompass his age as Adam Smith” (Heilbroner 74). Heilbroner views Smith’s theories as the foundation which influences the future economic thinkers discussed later in the…

Friedrich Hayek, an economist primarily working in the early to middle 1900s, focused primarily on many different economic topics and played an important role in the government's politics, influencing many economists viewpoints for years to come. Later on in his career, one of the economists he influenced, Milton Friedman arose to fame with his own economic theories partially based off of Friedrich Hayek’s theories. Although Friedman was influenced by Hayek, both economists have since diverged…

was developed first by economists, and then used by legislators to justify franchise monopolies. The theory goes a single producer will eventually be able to produce at a lower cost. This competition would be said to cause consumer inconvenience because of the construction of duplicative facilities, by digging up the streets to put in dual gas or water lines. The truth of natural monopoly was created decades before the theory was formalized by intervention-minded economists. The competition is…

In recent years, a major controversy has come about on if minimum wage should be raised. Hundreds of thousands of people in the work force, have been protesting and negotiating to raise the minimum wage. The debate has been that people who make the current minimum wage, want the standard to be increased and possibly raised to 15 dollars an hour. Those that oppose, think that raising it could ensue far greater economic problems. Since 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act has been indorsed to make…

The article in The Economist entitled “The parable of the sage grouse” (May 5, 2018) is ultimately about the perceived dangers of Ryan Zinke’s actions as Unites States Secretary of the Interior. The Economist is a weekly international newspaper that can be purchased in most major cities around the world. I accessed the print version of the article, but it can also be accessed online. The print version of the newspaper can be purchased for US$7.99 per issue which could be cost prohibitive for…

Adam Smith Adam Smith was a Scottish political economist and philosopher. He has become famous by his influential book The Wealth of Nations in which he details the first system of political economy. At the age about fifteen, Smith proceeded to Glasgow university, studying moral philosophy “the-never-to-be-forgotten” Francis Hutcheson. Adam Smith argued about the trade of goods between countries. Like for example if England produces goods of wool at lower cost than he can trade with France…

The two readings are focused on the same issue, that is, the surveillance systems that are being employed in the states in America in an effort to improve the security of the people or in a bid to make the people feel that they are safe. These surveillance systems are supposed to be used to detect suspicious individuals in the society and thus the law enforcement agencies can deal with such cases before crime is committed by suspects. The surveillance systems are growing and many are being…

This is highlighted by a quote by Edgeworth (1881 p.16), “the first principle of Economics is that every agent is actuated only by self-interest”. This shows that the theory of self interest and utility maximisation is central to being rational to economists.. However we have to question this notion of individuals always depending on the utility function, if we were to take this assumption literally, we would find out that the economic definition of rationality is not completely true. For…

presented differently. In “Ricardo’s Difficult Idea”, Krugman’s tone in his essay was mostly critical, caustic, and disdainful toward economists. Krugman was very critical of economists who are primarily against the learning of comparative advantage. He gives examples of how economists should want to learn more about comparative advantage, but doesn’t get any reasons why economists don’t prefer…