New Thinking: Adam Smith & Corporations w/ Maha Rafi Atal

According to pioneering political economist Adam Smith, the liberalisation of trade was supposed to progressively grow social wealth for all nations and eliminate the need for social evils such as slave labour. Why, then, with production organised at a transnational scale and capital so mobile, do giant multinational companies continue to hoard profits while development stagnates for so many? And why does slavery and forced labour persist in global supply chains?

Dr Maha Rafi Atal is Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at University of Glasgow. She joins Dr Remi Edwards to discuss her recently co-authored article Adam Smith: His continuing relevance for contemporary management thought (2024). They consider what we can learn from Adam Smith to explain contemporary political economy challenges associated with global corporations including failures of corporate responsibility and regulation, extreme concentrations of power and wealth, and the difficulties of labour organising across borders.

Publications discussed also include Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776) and Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).

Find out more about the Adam Smith 300 project at the University of Glasgow, including its' exhibition of his student's lecture notes discussed in the episode.