Note:
The following news article has been archived.
Most photos have been removed, and some links may no longer be functional.
Nobel Prize Recipient Vernon L. Smith Gives Lecture
'Constructivist and Ecological Rationality
in Economics'
On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, Vernon L.
Smith, Professor of Law and Economics at George Mason
University and Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, 2002
gave a lecture presentation at the George Mason School of
Law.
This
presentation was a version of the address delivered by Professor
Smith in Stockholm in December 2002 on the occasion of his
receipt of the Nobel Prize (technically, The Central Bank
of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred
Nobel). The presentation draws upon Professor Smith's lifetime
contributions to the field of experimental economics, contributions
that culminated in his achieving this highest level of recognition.
The award of this Prize to Professor Smith honors not only
the individual, but also his immediate colleagues in the
Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, the Department
of Economics, the School of Law, and all other members of
the wider George Mason University community.
A video of the presentation can be viewed here on our site.
You will need to have a version of the Real
Player software installed on your computer in order
to view it. Included below is a transcribed copy of the
presentation that Vernon Smith made on February 25, 2003.
Below this is the text of the toast that Vernon Smith made
when at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, Sweden on December
10, 2002.
Related Documents
Dr. Vernon Smith's Toast
Nobel Banquet -- Stockholm, December 10, 2002
Your majesties, the royal academy, my fellow laureates,
ladies and gentlemen. I rise to offer a toast. In this toast
I wish to celebrate:
- The royal family for their grace and charm in this
magnificent affirmation of the dignity of human kind.
- Daniel Kahneman for his ingenuity in the study and
understanding of human decision and its associated cognitive
processes demonstrating that the logic of choice and the
ecology of choice can be divergent.
- The pioneering influence of Sidney Siegel, Amos Tversky,
Martin Shubik, and Charles Plott on the intellectual movement
that culminated in the Economics Award for 2002.
- Humanity’s most significant emergent creation:
markets.
- Mandeville who said: “The worst of all the multitude
did something for the common good.”
- The ancient Judeo commandants: thou shalt not steal
or covet the possessions of thy neighbor, which provide
the property right foundations for markets, and warned
that petty distributional jealousy must not be allowed
to destroy them. Neither shalt thou commit murder, adultery
or bear false witness, which provide the foundations for
cohesive social exchange.
- David Hume who declared the three laws of human nature:
the right of possession, its transference by consent,
and the performance of promises, and taught that the rules
of morality are not the conclusions of reason.
- F. A. Hayek for teaching us that an economist who is
only an economist cannot be a good economist; that fruitful
social science must be very largely a study of what is
not; that reason properly used recognizes its own limitations;
that civilization rests on the fact that we all benefit
from knowledge that we do not possess (as individuals);
and who saw emergent institutions as super-individual
structures within which individuals found great opportunities
that could take account of more factual circumstances
than individuals could perceive, and in consequence is
in some respects superior to or ‘wiser’ than,
human reason.
- Ben Franklin, who said, ‘tell me and I forget,
teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.’
- And finally, Kahlil Gibran from whom we learn the truth
that ‘work is love made visible.’
- Vernon L. Smith
Related Coverage and Links about Vernon Smith:
Vernon Smith, Professor of
Law and Economics at George Mason University, Wins the
Nobel Prize in Economics
The
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of
Alfred Nobel 2002: Daniel Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith