David Ricardo

David Ricardo (19 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was one of the most influential English classical political economists. He was also a member of Parliament, businessman and financier. Perhaps his most important contributions were the law of Comparative Advantage, a fundamental argument in favour of free trade among countries and of specialisation among individuals, and the Ricardian Equivalence, an argument suggesting that in some circumstances a government's choice of how to pay for its spending (i.e., whether to use tax revenue or issue debt and run a deficit) might have no effect on the economy.