Big Ideas Workshop: The Invisible Hand and Potential Competition: Contemporary relevance of Adam Smith to Competition Law

ICLE’s invitation-only Big Ideas Workshop series brings together early- and mid-career scholars to discuss important ideas in law & economics.

In antitrust and competition law, we often focus on protecting the “competitive process” in order to ensure that markets work for the benefit of consumers. But we often resort to hand-waving when it comes to defining the “competitive process.” Adam Smith also did some hand-waving when discussing the drivers of competition — albeit in his case to draw attention to the role of the invisible hand of competition. 

This workshop utilized excerpts from Smith and his contemporaries, as well as work by more recent scholars who have reflected on the role of competition in Smith’s writing.

This is the third year of our Big Ideas workshops. Prior workshops have looked at topics including the diverging views of Guido Calabresi and Richard Posner, the evolution of the understanding of the Theory of the Firm, and the foundational work of Armen Alchian.

For more information, contact [email protected].

May 4 & 5, 2023
3pm to 6pm ET