Bob Frank says the economy is not driven by supply and demand, but rather survival of the fittest

9/14/2011 6:53:00 PM

In his new book 'The Darwin Economy,' Frank suggests that in economic "battles," individual interests prevail to the detriment of the group

Excerpt from the Cornell Chronicle (Robert Frank pens new book, 'The Darwin Economy' Sept. 6):

Charles Darwin will someday supplant Adam Smith as the intellectual father of economics, predicts Cornell's Robert Frank in his new book, "The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition and the Common Good" (Princeton University Press).


That's because Darwin understood the true nature of competition better than Adam Smith, says Frank, the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Frank concedes that unbridled competition often promotes the common good, just as Smith claimed. "But as the pioneering naturalist, Charles Darwin understood clearly, individual interests often conflict sharply with group interests. And in those cases, individual interests tend to prevail," Frank said. MORE

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