Curing Economics’ Addiction to Unreal Theories
A Review of Ricardo’s Dream, by Nat Dyer
A Review of Ricardo’s Dream, by Nat Dyer
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Ayn Rand Meets Her Match: David Sloan Wilson Fights Fiction with Fiction
A devastating critique of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and its impact on the world.
A devastating critique of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and its impact on the world.
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Why New Economics Needs a New Invisible Hand
The New Invisible Hand suggests the existence of a middle path.
By David Sloan Wilson In olden days, the death of one Monarch and coronation of the next was sometimes announced with the words “The King is Dead! Long Live the King!” In this spirit, I’m […]
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How to Create Collective Intelligence
Markets, science, and humanity don’t automatically generate solutions.
David Sloan Wilson interview Geoff Mulgan Say the word “mind” and most people immediately think about the workings of an individual brain. The idea that something larger than an individual might have a mind seems […]
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The Invisible Hook: How Pirate Society Proves Economic Self-Interest Wrong
Pirate bands are radically democratic and egalitarian: Hayek and the evolutionary imperative.
By David Sloan Wilson I recently took part in a workshop titled “Tensions in the Political Economy Project of F.A. Hayek”. The Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992) is a libertarian God and the workshop was […]
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Pare De Reclamar Do Tamanho Do Governo. Comece a Se Preocupar Com Quem O Controla.
O papel do Estado na economia
Por David Sloan Wilson e Daron Acemoglu Em uma comunicação que apresentei recentemente no Mercatus Center da Universidade George Mason, eu louvei Friedrich Hayek como um pioneiro por ter descrito os sistemas econômicos como produtos […]
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The Tragedy of the Commons: How Elinor Ostrom Solved One of Life’s Greatest Dilemmas
The design principles for solving the tragedy of the commons can be applied to all groups
Editor’s Note: In an effort to center New Economic Thinking in the discussion of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve curated a list of Evonomics articles relevant to this moment—including this one. Check out the full list here. […]
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My Opinion of Noahpinion: A Response to Noah Smith’s Critique About the Future of Economics
Debating the future of economics
By David Sloan Wilson It’s a pleasure to be critiqued by Noah Smith in his widely read blog Noahpinion. I have no cause to complain, since his critique is good natured and he agrees with […]
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The Radical Remaking of Economics
To place economics on a solid footing, we need to build its intellectual foundations
By David Sloan Wilson and Eric Beinhocker This year marks the 10th anniversary of Eric Beinhocker’s influential book The Origin of Wealth: The Radical Remaking of Economics and What it Means for Business and Society. […]
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The Death of the Invisible Hand: Why the Narrow Pursuit of Self Interest Always Fails
Regulation comes naturally for small human groups but must be constructed for large human groups.
By David Sloan Wilson September 6, 2016 I hope that our economy recovers, but the time has come to declare its guiding metaphor dead. This is the metaphor of the invisible hand, which makes it […]
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Why Groups Fail (Hint: For the Same Reasons that Nations Fail)
To solve the problem of abuse by power-hungry leaders, the first step must be the adoption of a worldview that makes it obvious.
By David Sloan Wilson Some experiments are like a good play, compressing profound truths into compact form. That’s how I felt when I read a 2010 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology […]
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“My Nation First!” is No Better than “Me First!”
Blatant selfishness is toxic, regardless of the scale that it occurs.
By David Sloan Wilson Imagine that you live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. A new person arrives who makes it absolutely clear that he places his own interest ahead of all […]
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Scientists Discover What Economists Haven’t Found: Humans
Working towards building a better theory of human nature
By David Sloan Wilson and Joseph Henrich July 12, 2016 Paleontologists tell us that numerous Homo species once roamed the earth, although only Homo sapiens remains. Several Homo species still inhabit economic world, however — […]
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The Invisible Hand is Dead!
It’s time to rethink the foundational economic metaphor
By David Sloan Wilson In olden days, the death of a king and accession of his successor was announced by the proclamation “The King is Dead! Long Live the King!” I’m here to announce the […]
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How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public
The evolution, ecology, and nature of firms
By David Sloan Wilson and Lynn Stout A bedrock assumption of economics is that firms become well adapted by competing against each other. If so, then consider a study that I reported upon earlier, which […]
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Stop Crying About the Size of Government. Start Caring About Who Controls It.
Centralized planning won’t work. Totally unregulated markets won’t work. So what will work?
Centralized planning won’t work. Totally unregulated markets won’t work. So what will work?
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Why Economists Should Start Behaving Like Scientists
The empirical revolution needs a general theory
By David Sloan Wilson I welcome the attention that Noah Smith has drawn to two “big think” pieces, one by Nick Hanauer and Eric Liu and the other by myself, which are both cut from […]
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Fighting Wall Street Predators with Game Theory
Punishing the financial defectors
By David Sloan Wilson The newest Wall Street bestseller by Michael Lewis, Flash Boys, chronicles the unlikely emergence of fairness in the corrupt world of high-frequency trading (HFT). It’s a gripping and enlightening read for anyone […]
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Business Schools Have It Backwards. Companies Survive Longer When They Put Employees First.
Maximizing profits over the short term typically undermines the viability of a company over the long term.
By David Sloan Wilson A groundbreaking new study1 suggests that companies need to offer a fair deal to their employees to survive. The study followed the fate of 136 companies over a five-year period, starting […]
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The Libertarian Economist Friedrich Hayek Gets a Makeover
Rethinking the concept of laissez-faire and complexity
By David Sloan Wilson My Evonomics article titled The Road to Ideology: How Friedrich Hayek Became a Monster resulted in a barrage of criticism from those who hold Hayek near and dear. In my own […]
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What Milton Friedman Got Wrong: Biologists Destroy Homo-Economicus
Homo-economicus vs biological adaptation
By David Sloan Wilson One of the most influential articles published in the field of economics is Milton Friedman’s (1953) “The Methodology of Positive Economics”, in which he argues that people behave as if the […]
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The Woman Who Saved Economics from Disaster
Who is Elinor Ostrom?
Editor’s Note: In an effort to center New Economic Thinking in the discussion of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve curated a list of Evonomics articles relevant to this moment—including this one. Check out the full list here. […]
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Failed Economics: Tyranny of Mathematics and Enslaved by the Wrong Theory
The strange world of modern economics.
By David Sloan Wilson When it comes to my economics training, I’m a late bloomer. My primary training is in evolutionary theory, which I have used as a navigational guide to study many human-related topics, […]
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What Paul Krugman Needs to Know About Evolutionary Economics
Standard economics meets evolutionary theory
By David Sloan Wilson After complaining that economic soul searching taking place since 2008 ignores evolutionary theory, I was made aware of Paul Krugman’s 1996 address to the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy. I […]
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Economic Theory Is Dead. Here’s What Will Replace It.
The New Economics can enter the post-Darwinian age right now.
By David Sloan Wilson Everyone seems to agree that the economics profession had a near death experience in 2008 and either needs to be or has been reborn in a different incarnation. The most optimistic […]
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Paul Krugman and David Brooks. The Language Prison That Traps Liberals and Conservatives
How narratives influence our actions
By David Sloan Wilson Regulation is one of the most charged words in politics. If you’re a conservative, then you’re likely to think that regulation is a bad thing that erodes personal responsibility and prevents […]
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Let’s Take Objectivism Back from Ayn Rand
A creed that is just like religious fundamentalism
By David Sloan Wilson In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, a totalitarian state has created a language called Newspeak designed to limit freedom of thought, often by inverting customary meanings. How ironic that Ayn […]
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From Political Gridlock to Scientific Progress. The Promise of Evonomics
Can the Left and the Right play by the rules?
By David Sloan Wilson Evolutionists who take an interest in economics often fall along a political spectrum, just like other folks. Right-leaning evolutionists include Larry Arnhart (Darwinian Conservatism), Michael Shermer (The Mind of the Market), […]
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Bankruptcy, Divorce, and Long Commutes. More Evidence That Income Inequality is Toxic
How inequality is eroding the fabric of American life.
Editor’s Note: In an effort to center New Economic Thinking in the discussion of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve curated a list of Evonomics articles relevant to this moment—including this one. Check out the full list here. […]
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Love Hayek, Love Darwin
It’s time to update the libertarian hero
By David Sloan Wilson In my last essay on Hayek I distinguished between the flesh and blood man and the ideological monster that was created in the 1940s and continues to lumber around uttering his […]
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