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Economics and ethics are both valuable tools for analyzing the behavior and actions of human beings and institutions. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, considered them two sides of the same coin, but since economics was formalized and mathematicised in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the fields have largely followed separate paths.
The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics provides a timely and thorough survey of the various ways ethics can, does, and should inform economic theory and practice. The first part of the book, Foundations, explores how the most prominent schools of moral philosophy relate to economics; asks how morals relevant to economic behavior may have evolved; and explains how various approaches to economics incorporate ethics into their work. The second part, Applications, looks at the ethics of commerce, finance, and markets; uncovers the moral dilemmas involved with making decisions regarding social welfare, risk, and harm to others; and explores how ethics is relevant to major topics within economics, such as health care and the environment.
With esteemed contributors from economics and philosophy, The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics is a resource for scholars in both disciplines and those in related fields. It highlights the close relationship between ethics and economics in the past while and lays a foundation for further integration going forward.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Foundations
- A. Ethical Theories in Economics
- 1: 1. Stefanie Haeffele and Virgil Henry Storr: Adam Smith and the Study of Ethics in a Commercial Society
- 2: Jennifer A. Baker: Virtue and Economics, Horse and Cart
- 3: Mark D. White: With All Due Respect: A Kantian Approach to Economics
- 4: Jonathan B. Wight: Ethical Pluralism in Economics
- 5: Constanze Binder and Ingrid Robeyns: Economic Ethics and the Capability Approach
- B. Sources of Morality in Economics
- 6: Geoffrey M. Hodgson: Evolution and Moral Motivation in Economics
- 7: Gerald Gaus: Morality as a Complex Adaptive System: Rethinking Hayek's Social Ethics
- 8: David C. Rose: On the Evolution of Ethics, Rationality, and Economic Behavior
- C. Ethics in Schools of Economics
- 9: Sanjit Dhami and Ali al-Nowaihi: Human Ethicality: Evidence and Insights from Behavioral Economics
- 10: John B. Davis: Ethics and Economics: A Complex Systems Approach
- 11: Peter Boettke and Kaitlyn Woltz: Economics and Ethics within the Austrian School of Economics
- 12: Ulrike Knobloch: Feminist Economics and Ethics
- 13: Arlo Klamer: Economy and Culture: The Importance of Sense-Making
- Part II: Applications
- A. Commerce and Markets
- 14: James R. Otteson: Humane Markets: The Classical Tradition of Political Economy
- 15: Julian Reiss: Capitalism and Democracy: Allies, Rivals, or Strangers?
- 16: Joseph Heath: The Moral Status of Profit
- 17: Joakim Sandberg: The Ethics of Money and Finance
- 18: Michael S. McPherson, and Debra Satz: Ethics And, In, and For Labor Markets
- B. Welfare, Risk, and Policy
- 19: Matthew D. Adler: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Social Welfare Functions
- 20: Marc Fleurbaey: The Normative Economics of Social Risk
- 21: Luc Bovens: The Ethics of Making Risky Decisions for Others
- 22: George F. DeMartino: The Tragedy of Economics: On the Nature of Economic Harm and the Responsibilities of Economists
- C. Ethics in Applied Economics
- 23: Daniel M. Hausman: Economics, Ethics, and Health Insurance
- 24: Eyal Zamir and Barak Medina: Deontological Morality and Economic Analysis of Law
- 25: David Schmidtz: The Ethics and Economics of Ecological Justice
- 26: Brendan O'Flaherty: Civil Rights, Employment, and Race
- Part III: Conclusion
- 27: John Broome: Lessons from Economics
About the author
Mark D. White is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, and a member of the doctoral faculty in economics at the Graduate Center of CUNY. He is the author of seven books, including Kantian Ethics and Economics: Autonomy, Dignity, and Character; editor or co-editor of many volumes, including Economics and the Virtues: Building a New Moral Foundation (with Jennifer A. Baker); and author of over sixty journal articles and book chapters in economics, philosophy, and law. He is series editor of On Ethics and Economics (Rowman and Littlefield International) and Perspectives from Social Economics (Palgrave Macmillan), and a co-founder of the blog Economics and Ethics.
Summary
This Oxford Handbook explores the various ways ethics can, does, and should inform economic theory and practice. With esteemed contributors from economics and philosophy, it highlights the close relationshop between ethics and economics in the past and lays a foundation for further integration going forward.
