LARS P. SYLL

One of the limitations of economics is the restricted possibility of performing experiments, forcing it to rely mainly on observational studies for knowledge of real-world economies. But still — the idea of performing laboratory experiments holds a firm grip on our wish to discover (causal) relationships between economic ‘variables’. If only we could isolate and […]

Adam Smith, like the other Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, was strongly influenced by natural rights philosophy. Locke — under the influence of Hugo Grotius and Samuel von Pufendorf — had emphasised people’s natural freedom and right against the state. For Smith, natural freedom meant, among other things, that the individual himself should have the right t...

The recurring pattern in financial crises is broadly the same. For one reason or another, a shift occurs in the economic cycle — such as war, innovation, or new regulation — which alters profit opportunities for banks and firms. Demand and prices rise, drawing ever larger parts of the economy into a state of euphoria. […]

Robert Skidelsky joined the University of Warwick in 1978 as Professor of International Studies, and in 1990 he was appointed Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Economics where he worked until his retirement in 2006 after 28 years of teaching and research at Warwick. He was made a member of the House of […]