Why Charles Darwin may have been one of the greatest economists in history

Who would be most apt at explaining the economy: the British naturalist Charles Darwin, father of the theory of natural selection, or the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, whose work "The Wealth of Nations "(1776) that laid the foundation for the clbadical economy?

The question may seem exaggerated and easy to answer. But for Robert H. Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University in the United States and author of "The Economy of Darwin: Freedom, Competition and the Common Good". free), Darwin's understanding of competition provides a much more accurate description of economic reality than Smith's perspective.

If Smith was right in baderting the benefits of competition, Frank Frank Darwin went further by showing that competition can sometimes generate benefits for the individual, but at the expense of the group.

Individual vs Group

Smith's theory of the Invisible Hand states that when one behaves in a personal interest, one obtains beneficial results for the whole of society.

But, according to Professor Robert H. Frank, Darwin perceived the relationship between the pursuit of personal benefit and well-being much more clearly.

This metaphor describes how the free market regulates itself without outside interference.

To illustrate the Darwinian vision, the researcher uses the disproportionate size of deer antlers as an example.

"It's a trait that has evolved to give individualized animals a reproductive advantage, but that has proven to be a major drawback for their community," Frank told the BBC.

Males of this species get married as well as possible. In the middle of that, they fight against other males and, the bigger the wood, the more likely they are to defeat the opponent.

"For this reason, the mutation coding for the size of the wood was rapidly selected by evolution.Today, these animals have woods of more than 1.2 meters weighing nearly 18 kg "says Professor Cornell.

Imagine now this animal with such a structure in the head hunted by foxes among the trees. "It will be much easier to surround and kill him," Frank said.

The natural selection process offers advantages to larger deer than to other animals of the same genus. But these big horns have become a disadvantage for deer before their prey

that is to say that the element that benefits the individual opposes the interests of the group.

Parallels

What is interesting about Darwin, Frank says, is that sometimes the individual interest coincides with the collective, but usually not. "In case of conflict, the individual's interest usually outweighs the collective."

According to researcher Cornell, natural selection using deer antlers has led to an evolution that does not compete with the environment, but animals of the same species compete with each other.