At long last, Adam Smith has been honored in his native Edinburgh, with a prominent statue
outside St. Giles’ Cathedral on the Royal Mile.
As reported by the FT, the unveiling was yesterday:
Vernon
Smith, the George Mason law and economics professor and
winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics, and a lifelong Adam Smith admirer,
performed the unveiling. His 2002 Prize was shared 50/50 with Daniel
Kahneman of Princeton for their work in "having integrated insights from
psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human
judgment and decision-making under uncertainty" and ""for
having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic
analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms." (We
call this behavioral economics.)
The statue cost nearly half a million dollars (£250,000),
entirely paid for by private subscriptions organized by the Adam
Smith Institute. The Paisley sculptor Sandy Stoddard designed and
produced the monument, which shows Smith in academic robes.
High time for a return visit to Edinburgh.
