Invisible Hand Toolkit
Explore the most famous metaphor in economics with our collection of original resources for you and your classroom.
Explore the original text
The “invisible hand” is more well-known than well understood. Start with the source — Adam Smith! We can help you build confidence and competence in your classroom.
- Key passage: the Invisible Hand in Wealth of Nations
- Key passage: the Invisible Hand in The Theory of Moral Sentiments
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"Wealth of Tweets" in the classroom exercise: Invisible Hand
Reading Guides
AdamSmithWorks reading guides insert factual, interpretive, and evaluative questions directly into the original text for exploration with your students. Adam Smith used the “invisible hand” phrase only twice in his published books but both times are important and worth understanding:
- Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 2: Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries
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The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part 4: Of the Effect of Utility upon the Sentiment of Approbation
Bellringer
Set the stage for learning.
Lesson Plans
Ready-to-use lesson plans allow students to explore the concept of the invisible hand through activities, discussion, and writing assignments.
- The Invisible Hand, Spontaneous Order, and a Pizza is an introductory lesson (middle school through Econ 101) that aims to simplify the idea expressed in Smith’s famous metaphor in Wealth of Nations. Students are led through all the coordination required to make a pizza. This is paired with videos about Adam Smith and Leonard Read’s story "I, Pencil."
- Our Ghost Story raises the invisible hand from a government policy perspective. Students role-play an imaginary President Elizabeth Montgomery meeting the ghosts of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes to explore economic policy ideas.
- The Pins, Pencils, and the Invisible Hand lesson plan uses a video exploring the economics of creating a pencil to introduce the ideas of economic complexity and coordination. The lesson pairs the video with an exploration of AdamSmithWorks’ pin factory to get students thinking about the coordination that went into making pins in Adam Smith’s time. The lesson includes optional guided deep readings of the “invisible hand” passages, with discussion/homework questions.
Beyond Worksheets
Worksheets can work! But here are some less traditional options to reach students in a different way.
- Video: Part 1: The Invisible Hand of the An Animal That Trades video series
This eight-minute video provides an introduction to Adam Smith and how people’s sociability helps to coordinate our actions—the Invisible Hand. Discussion questions are provided at the bottom of the page. - Comic: The Invisible Hand by Doug Curtis and Jeremy Lott
A one-page, printable comic to help students think about coordination through sociability. - Blog post: Adam Smith and Owning It with the Mystery of the Invisible Hand, Economics professor Dr. Lauren Heller talks about how she balances her enthusiasm for Adam Smith against the skepticism of students by reaching for an economic mystery novel. (Yes, really.)
Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, a quick review
These resources can help refresh your understanding of the invisible hand and may be used with advanced students.
- Essay: Seeing the Invisible Bridge in Adam Smith by Steven Horwitz explores how the social forces behind Adam Smith’s invisible hand metaphor also link his two most famous works.
- Lecture: The Search for the Weaver of Dreams by Russ Roberts
- Lecture: The Real Invisible Hand: Hayek, Smith, and Emergent Order by Russ Roberts