The futility of utility: how market dynamics marginalize Adam Smith

The utility of futility.

See related article, pages 2410–2414. In this issue, Palesch et al 1 discuss the single-arm, phase II futility study design and illustrate how its use might have avoided 3 large (and costly) but negative phase III therapeutic trials for ischemic stroke patients. The authors offer strong arguments to support their conclusion that use of this design as a strategy in phase II development “could pe...

Adam Smith , Behavioral

Adam Smith , Behavioral Economist

Adam Smith and Greed

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist

I n The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith famously argued that economic behavior was motivated by self-interest. But 17 years earlier in 1759, Smith had proposed a theory of human behavior that looks anything but selfinterested. In his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith argued that behavior was determined by the struggle between what Smith termed the “passions” and...