Matt Ridley

British science writer and member of the House of Lords, former chairman of Northern Rock, writing on evolution, genomics, trade and innovation.

The Rational Optimist argues that exchange and specialisation, not individual intelligence, drive rising living standards, and assembles the long-run price and productivity evidence behind the claim. How Innovation Works applies the same method to case histories, showing invention as incremental, collective and largely detached from formal research spending.

9 books of their own