... A brilliant, thought-provoking and wide-ranging book ... anybody interested in understanding why we are where we are should read it. For me, it was more than the business book of 2006; it was the book of 2006 -- Martin Wolf ― Financial Times
Beinhocker is nothing if not ambitious -- Sir Howard Davies, director of The LSE ― The Times Higher Educational Supplement
An absorbing survey...[a] tour de force -- James Pressley ― Bloomberg
Economic thinking has changed radically in the last fifteen years.Eric Beinhocker gives us a sparkling tour of the new ideas. -- Professor W. Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute
For business readers and academics, Beinhocker is a zealous and able guide ― Publishers Weekly
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.
From the Publisher
'Unquestionably the most important business book of the year.' - Management Today
From the Back Cover
What is wealth? How is it created? How can we create more of it?
This groundbreaking book shows how revolutionary ideas from economics and science are providing new answers to these age-old questions. Around the world researchers are upending a hundred years of economic theory and recasting the economy as a teeming evolutionary stew, a complex adaptive system more akin to the brain, the internet, or an ecosystem than to the static picture presented by traditional theory. In provocative fashion, Eric Beinhocker describes how this new theory of the economy will fundamentally change our thinking on topics ranging from technological innovation, to the workings of the stock market, to political debates about right versus left. Thought-provoking and stimulating, The Origin of Wealth sets the agenda for twenty-first century economic thinking.
'A brilliant piece of intellectual history.' Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
'Ambitious ... convention shattering ... its premise is novel and sweeping: Don't grow your organization, evolve it.' Josh McHugh, Wired
'Masterful ... Beinhocker writes with passion ... a fascinating subject and a pleasure to read.' London Book Review
About the Author
Eric D. Beinhocker spent 18 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was a partner, and was one of the leaders of its Global Strategy Practice. He has also worked as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and has held research appointments at the Harvard Business School, the MIT Center for Organizational Learning, and the Santa Fe Institute. He is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking's research programme at the University of Oxford.
