Product Description

Economics is changing radically. This paradigm shift, the biggest in the field for over a century, will have profound implications for business, government and society for decades to come. In this groundbreaking book, economic thinker and writer Eric Beinhocker surveys the cutting-edge ideas of the leading economists, physicists, biologists and cognitive scientists who are fundamentally reshaping economics, and brings their work alive for a broad audience. These researchers argue that the economy is a 'complex adaptive system', more akin to the brain, the internet or an ecosystem than to the static picture of economic systems portrayed by traditional theory. They claim it is the evolutionary process of differentiation, selection and amplification, acting on designs for technologies, social institutions and businesses that drives growth in the economy over time. If Adam Smith provided the inspiration for economics in the twentieth century, it is Charles Darwin who is providing it in the twenty-first. If we can understand how evolution creates wealth, then we can better answer the question 'How can we create more wealth for the benefit of individuals, businesses and society?' Beinhocker shows how 'Complexity Economics' turns conventional wisdom on its head in areas such as business strategy, the design of organisations, the workings of stock markets and public policy. As sweeping in scope as its title, "The Origin of Wealth" is a landmark book that shatters orthodox economic theory, and will rewire our thinking about how we came to be here - and where we are going.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79194 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Martin Wolf, Financial Times January 17 2007
'a brilliant, thought-provoking and wide-ranging book'

Management Today, June 2006
'a remarkable book...you must read it. It is unquestionably the most important business book of the year.'

James Pressley, Bloomberg, August 17 2006
'an absorbing survey...[a] tour de force'

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended if you work in business, economics or politics
This book is well worth a read if you're interested in business, economics or politics. I've found myself turning back to re-read chapters over the past few months it's given so much food for thought.

Complexity theory sounds scary. Eric Beinhocker shows that it isn't. He shows how simple and incredibly powerful it is as a way to explain what we see in the real world every day.

The business reader gets an utterly compelling insight into why innovation in big businesses is so hard to pull off. I found myself having 'aha' moments about why innovation at the companies I've worked at is such a challenge. It also led me to think about why Google's seemingly chaotic strategy might just work and to build my own understanding about why services like YouTube and Skype are hard to predict but huge when they happen.

Readers interested in economics see that complexity theory provides the economics profession with a way of explaining the economy without requiring theoretical modelling assumptions that don't reflect reality. I studied economics at Cambridge University several years ago and finally can see an economic theory that more closely reflects the whole story.

And for those interested in politics, Eric Beinhocker shows why Left and Right ultimately is not the best theoretical foundation for explaining how to improve things. Complexity theory provides politicians with a framework that starts with cooperation (Left) and competition (Right) co-existing and builds its policies with both present.

One final prediction: this book will continue to grow in popularity. The world is complex. This book thoroughly stimulates the mind.

Masterful explanation of fundamental shift in economics
The title THE ORIGIN OF WEALTH sounds like a deliberate mix of the titles of two classical masterpieces: THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859) by Charles Darwin and THE WEALTH OF NATIONS (1776) by Adam Smith. Before reading the book, I wondered if this might be just a cheap tric by author Eric Beinhocker to suggest that he has written a successor-masterpiece to these two famous groundbreaking books combining and integrating elements from both? After reading the book I say: no cheap tric. Beinhocker has written an incredible book in which he masterfully explains the paradigm shift that is needed and happening in economic science and practise. The shift in question moves from traditional economics to complexity economics and it draws heavily on evolution theory. Beinhocker not only explains the theoretical shift that is going on but also decribes implications for business and public policy. It is just amazing how Beinhocker is capable of integrating so much research findings and theoretical insights from different disciplines into a coherent theoretical framework. The title of this book could not have been more appropriate and well-deserved.

Coert Visser

Starts off well
This is probably worth reading for the first couple of chapters - which provide a fascinating critique of the classical economics via looking at the origin of the mathematical frameworks in nineteenth century physics. The rest of the book is far less successful; a rather lengthy and unfocussed discussion about how a new economics of complex systems would be so much better, but without saying anything substantive about what this would look like.