classical economics

American  

noun

1. a system or school of economic thought developed by Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo, advocating minimum governmental intervention, free enterprise, and free trade, considering labor the source of wealth and dealing with problems concerning overpopulation.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• classical economist
  noun

Example Sentences

She is the rational actor of classical economics, as imagined for instance by Adam Smith.

From Salon • Dec. 25, 2021

In classical economics, caps on rent increases were believed to limit the incentives to build new housing.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 20, 2019

The first, called limited rationality, helps explain why people do not necessarily follow the dictates of classical economics.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 9, 2017

This seemed like confirmation that Brazil was experiencing a second coming of its miracle, the sort of growth that defied the laws of classical economics.

From Slate • Aug. 7, 2016

With a natural partiality for their own opinions, they exaggerated immensely the extent and also the value of their divergence from the traditional or, as it is sometimes called, the classical economics.

From Contemporary Socialism by Rae, John