Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

Life imitates art Over the course of two centuries – from the 1770s to the 1970s, as economic man’s depiction morphed from a nuanced portrait to a crude cartoon – what had started as a model of man had turned into a model for man. This matters, argues economist Robert Frank, because ‘our beliefs about human nature help shape human nature itself’. Research by Frank and others has revealed, first, that the discipline of economics tends to attract self-interested people. Experimental research in Germany, for example, found that economics students were more likely than other students to be corruptible – willing to give a biased answer – if it led to a personal payout.12 Research in the US likewise found that economics majors were more approving of their own and others’ self-serving behaviour, while economics professors gave significantly less money to charity than their worse-paid colleagues in many other disciplines.13