Moral markets : the critical role of values in the economy / edited by Paul J. Zak ; with a foreword by Michael C. Jensen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Zak, Paul J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economics--Moral and ethical aspects.

Economics.

Physical Description:

xli, 344 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2008]

Summary:

Like nature itself, modern economic life is driven by relentless competition and unbridled selfishness. Or is it? Drawing on converging evidence from neuroscience, social science, biology, law, and philosophy, Moral Markets makes the case that modern market exchange works only because most people, most of the time, act virtuously. Competition and greed are certainly part of economics, but Moral Markets shows how the rules of market exchange have evolved to promote moral behavior and how exchange itself may make us more virtuous. Examining the biological basis of economic morality, tracing the connections between morality and markets, and exploring the profound implications of both, Moral Markets provides a surprising and fundamentally new view of economics-one that also reconnects the field to Adam Smith's position that morality has a biological basis.

Moral Markets, the result of an extensive collaboration between leading social and natural scientists, includes contributions by neuroeconomist Paul Zak; economists Robert H. Frank, Herbert Gintis, Vernon Smith (winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics), and Bart Wilson; law professors Oliver Goodenough, Erin O'Hara, and Lynn Stout; philosophers William Casebeer and Robert Solomon; primatologists Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal; biologists Carl Bergstrom, Ben Kerr, and Peter Richerson; anthropologists Robert Boyd and Michael Lachmann; political scientists Elinor Ostrom and David Schwab; management professor Rakesh Khurana; computational science and informatics doctoral candidate Erik Kimbrough; and business writer Charles Handy.

Contents:

The stories markets tell: affordances for ethical behavior in free exchange / William D. Casebeer

Free enterprise, sympathy, and virtue / Robert C. Solomon

The status of moral emotions in consequentialist moral reasoning / Robert H. Frank

How selfish an animal? The case of primate cooperation / Frans B. M. de Waal

Fairness and other-regarding preferences in nonhuman primates / Sarah F. Brosnan

The evolution of free enterprise values / Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd

Building trust by wasting time / Carl Bergstrom, Ben Kerr, Michael Lachmann

Taking conscience seriously / Lynn A. Stout

Trustworthiness and contract / Erin Ann O'Hara

The vital role of norms and rules in maintaining open public and private economies / David Schwab, Elinor Ostrom

Values, mechanism design, and fairness / Oliver R. Goodenough

Values and value: moral economics / Paul J. Zak

Building a market: from personal to impersonal exchange / Erik O. Kimbrough, Vernon L. Smith, Bart J. Wilson

Corporate honesty and business education: a behavioral model / Herbert Gintis, Rakesh Khurana

What's a business for? / Charles Handy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691135229

0691135223

9780691135236

0691135231

OCLC:

173502688