The person who has been known up until today as the "father of modern economics" is Adam Smith. A thinker and philosopher from Scotland, born in 1723 and died in 1790, Adam Smith was given this important title because of his ideas and theories on laissez-fair and the tendency of free markets to regulate themselves by way of competition, supply, demand and self-interest. He wrote several books where he proposed his economic ideas, among which we have: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, where he expresses this ideal of a hidden hand, which means the capacity of markets to autoregulate and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. He was also the proponent of the theory of compensating wage differentials, which states that jobs that are riskier pay much better wages to workers because of the risk they represent, versus jobs that offer little to no risk. He is also known as the father of Capitalism.
