The winner-take-all society: how more and more Americans compete for ever fewer and bigger prizes, encouraging economic waste, income inequality, and an impoverished cultural life

Robert H. Frank, Philip J. Cook

Free Press, 1995 - Business & Economics - 272 pages

In this book, two distinguished economists draw attention to an important and disturbing new trend that has dramatically transformed our economy in the last two decades: the spread of "winner-take-all" markets, where more and more people compete for ever fewer and bigger prizes. Such markets, where tiny differences in performance translate into huge differences in reward, have long been the hallmark of the performing arts and professional sports, where increasingly sophisticated recording technologies and the global reach of television have enabled millions to listen to and watch only "star" artists and athletes, leaving nothing for the also-rans. In recent years, however, winner-take-all markets have reached into virtually every part of the nation's economic life, spreading into such businesses as fashion, investment banking, and media; into professions like law and medicine; into higher education; and, increasingly, into management itself. While not for a moment denying that consumers have sometimes benefited - nobody has to listen to a second-rate soprano when virtually everyone can afford recordings of first-rate singers - Frank and Cook argue persuasively that, on balance, the result has been disastrous. They show how winner-take-all markets have dramatically widened the gap between rich and poor by concentrating all rewards among just a small handful of winners, and how they have lured some of our most talented individuals into socially unproductive and sometimes even destructive pursuits. Finally, in their relentless stress on winners - the bestselling novel, the blockbuster film, and so on - winner-take-all markets have diluted our culture in ways that many people find deeplydisturbing.

What people are saying

Review: The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us

User Review  - John - Goodreads

Standard economic theory tells us that free markets will efficiently balance supply and demand. But what if "supply" or "demand" are relative to the behavior of others in the market? Then the market ...

Review: The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us

User Review  - Fred R - Goodreads

Interesting idea, and all the it gets stretched pretty thin. More evidence and less speculation would have helped.

Contents

• How WinnerTakeAll Markets Arise: 23
• The Growth of WinnerTakeAll Markets: 45
• Runaway Incomes at the Top: 61

About the author

Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management and a regular "Economic View" columnist for the "New York Times," and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. His books, which have been translated into 22 languages, include "The Winner-Take-All Society" (with Philip Cook), "The Economic Naturalist," "Luxury Fever," "What Price the Moral High Ground?," and "Principles of Economics" (with Ben Bernanke).

Philip J. Cook is the ITT?/ Terry Sanford Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics and sociology at Duke University, where he is also senior associate dean for faculty and research. He is a research associate of the?NBER.

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Bibliographic information

• Title: The winner-take-all society: how more and more Americans compete for ever fewer and bigger prizes, encouraging economic waste, income inequality, and an impoverished cultural life
• Authors: Robert H. Frank, Philip J. Cook
• Contributor: Philip J. Cook
• Publisher: Free Press, 1995
• ISBN: 0028740343, 9780028740348
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Commerce; Business & Economics / Economic Conditions; Business & Economics / Economics / General; Competition; Consumer behavior; Fame; Fame - Economic aspects; Fame/ Economic aspects; Income distribution; Social Science / Popular Culture; Social Science / Social Classes; Social Science / Sociology / General; Success; Success in business