Dan Klein on Coordination and Cooperation

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2008

⏱️ 69 minutes

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Summary

Dan Klein of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the marvel of economic coordination that takes place without a coordinator--the sequence of complex tasks done by individuals often separated by immense distances who unknowingly contribute to everyday products and services we enjoy. Klein also discusses what he calls "the people's romance"--the idea that the highest form of human cooperation is through government action.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts
0:13.9	of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org
0:21.2	where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast, and find links to
0:26.5	other information related to today's conversation. Our email address is mailadicontalk.org. We'd
0:33.6	love to hear from you. My guest today is Dan Klein, my colleague here at George Mason University.
0:42.4	He is also the editor and founder of Econ Journal Watch, an online academic journal that critiques
0:51.3	other economists and other journals. We'll talk a little bit about that at the end of today's
0:58.8	conversation. Our topic for today is a very broad one and it is the idea of coordination,
1:05.4	idea and economics that goes back a long, long way and has evolved over time to mean many different
1:13.5	things. And I hope we'll talk about some of those different things and different meanings today.
1:19.1	Welcome to Econ Talk, Dan. Thank you very much Russ. So I want to start with an example that has
1:26.2	become somewhat forgotten but brought back to life in different, different
1:32.2	guises by other economists. The example comes from Adam Smith. It's right in the beginning of the
1:37.6	Wealth of Nations and he talks about the woolen coat. And he says the woolen coat, for example,
1:43.8	which covers the day laborer, as coarse and rough as it may appear, is the produce of the joint
1:49.8	laborer of a great multitude of workmen, the shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool comor
1:56.0	or Carter, the dire, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many
2:02.5	others must all join their different arts in order to complete even this homely production.
2:08.9	How many merchants and carriers besides must have been employed in transporting the materials
2:14.2	from some of those workmen to others who often live in a very distant part of the country?
2:20.0	And the most modern example of this phenomenon that Smith talks about
2:26.2	that is well known would be eye pencil. Leonard reads a little fable about a pencil's production
	...

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