Oh the fickleness of surveys. In the early 1970s, no one was thinking of Adam Smith. Kenneth Boulding quipped, tongue-in-cheek, "[W]ho needs Adam Smith?"
The meteoric resurgence of Adam Smith's reputation began after 1975. The reasons for it are complex and worthy of elaboration, which I did in "The Rise of Adam Smith" (2002).
A recent survey of economists found that among members of twelve economic associations, the favorite pre-20th century economist was overwhelmingly Adam Smith. Smith won more than twice as many votes as the runner up, David Ricardo.
The Union of Radical Political Economists (URPE), however, gave as many votes to Karl Marx as it did to Smith. The Society for the Development of Austrian Economics (SDAE) gave an equal vote to Carl Menger.
Overall it was a romp for the Scot, winning a majority of the votes.
Smith the wordsmith satisfies diverse tastes. Jacob Viner noted that "[A]n economist must have peculiar theories indeed who cannot quote from The Wealth of Nations to support his special purposes." Smith's genius was in constructing layers of analysis that give philosophers material to ponder for decades and centuries.
No. | % | Favorite Economist |
221 | 56% | Adam Smith |
106 | 27% | David Ricardo |
67 | 17% | Alfred Marshall |
394 | 100% | Total |
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