Adam Smith Institute

The Adam Smith Institute is one of the world’s leading think tanks, recognised as the best domestic and international economic policy think-tank in the UK and ranked 2nd in the world among Independent Think Tanks by the University of Pennsylvania.

Independent, non-profit and non-partisan, we work to promote free market, neoliberal ideas through research, publishing, media outreach, and education. We have always been a practical think tank rather than an academic organization, and despite our strict political independence, we have endeavored to work with policymakers to deliver real change, and to make free market ideas reality. Today, we are at the forefront of making the case for free markets and a free society in the United Kingdom.

The Institute was founded in the 1970s, as post-war socialism reached its high-watermark. Then, as now, our purpose was to educate the public about free markets and economic policy, and to inject sound ideas into the public debate.

We have a two-pronged strategy for changing the world:

1. Long-term, we change the landscape of opinion. Much of our work – events, books and media outreach – is dedicated to educating students and the wider public about why free markets work for everyone, particularly the poorest, so that in the long-run, the intellectual climate is more conducive to the cause of classical liberalism. For lasting reform, we need to create an environment in which even the most self-interested politician benefits by championing free markets and free people.
2. Short-term, we change policy. The Adam Smith Institute was one of the key drivers behind the privatization revolutions in the 1980s and 1990s, and has always been renowned for its innovative policy ideas. Our mantra is to come up with policy ideas that are both radical and reasonable – to act at the margin of reform, but nonetheless offer solutions that a bold politician can implement.

We believe that free markets have already been proven to be the best way of reducing poverty and giving people the freedom to live the lives they want. Our work is heavily empirical, grounded in practice and evidence from around the world. Though we favour bold, radical policy solutions to society’s problems, we base the case for this in cold, hard facts, not dogma.