A Darwinian Approach

摘要

Economics and evolutionary biology often seem like long-lost brothers, and the two fields share a number of theories. Both economics and evolutionary biology tend to view individuals as agents who maximize utility (welfare in economics and fitness in biology). Despite their similarities and overlap (7), the concept of selection, in itself, has largely remained in the realm of the biological sciences.In Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, Tim Harford argues that much can be gained from taking an evolutionary view of economics. Drawing on examples ranging from a rebellion of colonels against top-down control in the recent Iraq war to the success of Google at innovation, Harford (a London-based economics writer) shows why the flexibility to fail should be a key criterion for crafting successful businesses. He argues that allowing for different competing ideas, products, and business strategies will eventually lead to those that are best able to survive in a complex world. Crucial to this claim are two fundamental requirements of biological evolution: variation and selection on that variation.