Blog
Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Productivity Growth’
The full title of Adam Smith’s major work is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (the “WoN”). Today we observe governments
March 23, 2026
Blog
Insights into Regulation
Adam Smith and the Navigation Acts
Marking the 250th anniversary year of the publication of the Wealth of Nations, in the second of a series of blogs on the contemporary relevance of Adam Smith’s work, the Insights team take a look at his nuanced, changing assessment of the English Navigation Acts
February 24, 2026
Insights into Regulation
Revisiting Adam Smith’s Four Principles of Taxation
In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith put forward four general principles that he judged a tax system should satisfy. While the economic system then was much smaller and much less complex than now – the revenue required by the state funded a much narrower range of activities – principles are relatively enduring across changes in contexts.
January 30, 2026
Insights into Regulation
On tariffs and tanks – M. Bastiat vs. Mr Trump
Scaling geologic time to (say) one year, homo sapiens has existed for less than an hour. In that twinkling of an eye, we have developed some capacity for foresight – an enormous evolutionary leap in one of nature’s creatures.
February 13, 2025
Insights into Regulation
The Costs of Change
“Change” was the slogan of the British Labour Party in the recent General Election. It certainly didn’t do serious damage to electoral prospects; but it
October 21, 2024
Insights into Regulation
Entrepreneurship as human capital
Entrepreneurship is something of a ‘ghost in the machine’ so far as most economic theorising is concerned. It’s widely mentioned and tends to be encouraged by politicians, but detailed analysis of the concept is largely missing from standard economics. So, we ask: what is its nature, why is it important, and what (very briefly) might be done to encourage it?
July 19, 2024
Insights into Regulation
Elegant regulation vs ‘retail politics’
A quick web-search for the meaning of the word elegant yields the following (from Oxford languages): Adjective : (1) graceful and stylish in appearance or
June 21, 2024
Insights into Regulation
Immigration and the Ultimatum Game
Alongside the Prisoners Dilemma, study of the Ultimatum Game (UG) and its variants is a rich source of experimental observations on human attitudes and conduct
May 28, 2024
Insights into Regulation
Securonomics: slogan and substance
Slogans can provide politicians with useful ways of signalling policy objectives. The “tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime” slogan used by
April 30, 2024
Insights into Regulation
UK Defence Policy – ‘seeing’ the whole terrain
The human brain has evolved over eons into a hemispheric structure, allowing a lateralisation of attention to our surroundings. The right-hemisphere (RH) ‘presences’ the world
March 18, 2024