Scottish Economic Thought and the High Wage Economy: Hume, Smith and MCCulloch on Wages and Work Motivation

M. G. Marshall

Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 1998, vol. 45, issue 3, 309-328

Abstract: This article examines the work of Hume, Smith and McCulloch on wages and work motivation, and finds a clear and detailed case made for high wages within Scottish political economy. This analysis, through Hume and Smith, is based on key aspects of Scottish Enlightenment thought, and represents the culmination of the liberalization of thought regarding labour which developed in the eighteenth century. McCulloch, whose work on wages, incentives and motivation is more detailed and interesting than that of his ‘post‐Smithian’ classical colleagues, is shown to be, in this area at least, clearly in the Scottish tradition.

Date: 1998
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:45:y:1998:i:3:p:309-328

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