Ethical Codes and Income Distribution

Ethical Codes and Income Distribution
Author: Guglielmo Forges Davanzati
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2006-04-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134215851

In contemporary non-mainstream economic debate, it is widely thought that the functioning of a market economy needs a set of rules (i.e. institutions) which bind agents in their behaviour, allowing efficient outcomes. This idea is contrary to the General Equilibrium Model (GEM) where markets are pictured as working in an institutional vacuum and where social and historical variables play no role. However, in more recent times, a large group of economists have begun to insert social and moral variables into standard models based on the rational choice paradigm, following the increasing interest – on the part of firms – in the possible positive effects of adopting ethical codes. In this key new text Guglielmo Davanzati studies this burgeoning view that ethics and economics can be compatible. Does ‘morality’ affect income distribution? And, if so, what are the effects of the widespread adoption of ethical codes on the functioning of the labour market? Central to Davanzati’s efforts is the thesis that the roots of these new developments can be traced back to the pioneering work of Thorstein Veblen and John Bates Clark. Utilizing their contrasting works, Davanzati’s text illuminates the propagation of ethical codes within the two opposing frameworks i.e. the neoclassical and the institutional. Davanzati’s important book will be an invaluable reference for readers interested in history of economic thought, economics and moral philosophy.

Ethical Codes and Income Distribution

Ethical Codes and Income Distribution
Author: Guglielmo Forges Davanzati
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2006-04-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134215843

In contemporary non-mainstream economic debate, it is widely thought that the functioning of a market economy needs a set of rules (i.e. institutions) which bind agents in their behaviour, allowing efficient outcomes. This idea is contrary to the General Equilibrium Model (GEM) where markets are pictured as working in an institutional vacuum and where social and historical variables play no role. However, in more recent times, a large group of economists have begun to insert social and moral variables into standard models based on the rational choice paradigm, following the increasing interest – on the part of firms – in the possible positive effects of adopting ethical codes. In this key new text Guglielmo Davanzati studies this burgeoning view that ethics and economics can be compatible. Does ‘morality’ affect income distribution? And, if so, what are the effects of the widespread adoption of ethical codes on the functioning of the labour market? Central to Davanzati’s efforts is the thesis that the roots of these new developments can be traced back to the pioneering work of Thorstein Veblen and John Bates Clark. Utilizing their contrasting works, Davanzati’s text illuminates the propagation of ethical codes within the two opposing frameworks i.e. the neoclassical and the institutional. Davanzati’s important book will be an invaluable reference for readers interested in history of economic thought, economics and moral philosophy.

Ethical Social Index Numbers

Ethical Social Index Numbers
Author: Satya R. Chakravarty
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 364275502X

In this book we are concerned with income profile based ethical social index numbers. An ethical index is designed from an explicit social evaluation function with a specific purpose in mind. For example, an ethical relative inequality index determines the fraction of total income that could be saved without any welfare loss if society distri buted incomes equally. Ethical indices contrast with descriptive indices which are de rived without using any concept of social welfare. Needless to say, ethical indices are not meant to supplant descriptive indices, rather they are constructed with different aims. We begin Chapter 1 with a formal discussion on the concept of a social evaluation function. In the main body of this chapter we consider the problem of ranking income profiles using a social evaluation function. In Chapter 2 we set about analyzing alter native approaches to the measurement of inequality. In Chapter 3 we focus our attention on the Gini index, the most frequently used index of inequality, and its extensions. In Chapter 4 we formulate the notion of an ethical distance function that measures welfare of one population relative to another. Chapter 5 is devoted to quantifications and discussions of alternative definitions of relative deprivation put forward by Runci man(1966).

Economic Inequality and Morality

Economic Inequality and Morality
Author: Richard Madsen
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2019-08-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0815737203

Examining inequality through the lenses of moral traditions Rising inequality has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years from scholars and politicians, but the moral dimensions of inequality tend to be ignored. Is inequality morally acceptable? Is it morally permissible to allow practices and systems that contribute to inequality? Is there an ethical obligation to try to alleviate inequality, and if so, who is obligated to take that action? This book addresses these and similar questions not through a single lens of morality but through a comparative study of ethical traditions, both secular and religious, Western and non-Western. The moral and political traditions considered are: liberalism, Marxism, natural law, feminism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Confucianism. The types of inequality examined include property, natural resources, products, wealth, income, jobs, and taxation. The editors open the book with an introduction providing information on contemporary dimensions of the problem of economic inequality, and the book concludes with a summary of the perspectives represented. Economic Inequality and Morality is unusual in that it addresses similarities and differences on the questions of inequality within and across moral traditions. Authors of the individual studies answer a common set of topic-related questions, giving the reader a broad perspective on how a broad range of traditions view and respond to inequality.

The Ethics of Redistribution

The Ethics of Redistribution
Author: Baron Bertrand de Jouvenel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2010-01-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521125864

The Ethics of Redistribution was originally delivered as a Boutwood Lecture at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in the autumn of 1949. The Baron Bertrand de Jouvenel was then an already internationally regarded philosopher whose learned style was a calculated blend of moral. historical and political considerations. In this essay, split between discussions of the socialist ideal and state expenditure, he presents the fraught economic, societal and ethical implications attendant upon the question of income redistribution.

The Ethics of Redistribution

The Ethics of Redistribution
Author: Bertrand de Jouvenel
Publisher: Liberty Fund
Total Pages: 130
Release: 1990
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

In this concise and elegant work, first published in 1952, Bertrand de Jouvenel purposely ignores the economic evidence that redistributional efforts sap incentives and are economically destructive. Rather, he stresses the commonly disregarded ethical arguments showing that redistribution is ethically indefensible for, and practically unworkable in, a complex society. Bertrand de Jouvenel was an author and teacher, first publishing On Power in 1945. John Gray is Professor Emeritus of European Thought at the London School of Economics.

Beyond Market and Government

Beyond Market and Government
Author: Yining Li
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2014-09-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 366244254X

This book explores how moral factors exert influence on economy from an economic and philosophical point of view. The book takes an in-depth look at topics such as efficiency and coordination, fairness and identification, law and self-discipline and the third distribution, which have long been the focus of public attention. As expounded in this book, in places where regulation by market or government does work, there are still some gaps that the two modes of regulation cannot reach owing to the limitations of their influence. Each does compensate for the other’s limitations, but only up to a point. The gap can only be filled by custom and morality. In this sense, regulation by custom and morality can be viewed as a regulatory mode beyond market and government. In a market economy, market regulation of resource allocation as a basic mode can be called “primary regulation” and government regulation, as a high-level mode, “secondary regulation.” Regulation that relies on the force of custom and morality, a regulation beyond market and government, can be called “the third regulation.” A variety of causes can give rise to market failure or government paralysis, rendering regulation by market or government ineffective or extremely limited. But even in such circumstances, custom and morality still exist and continue working as normal. What affects resource allocation, socio-economic operations and living standards is not just the power of market or government, but that of custom and morality. This book is one of the three published writings that best reflect Professor Li Yining’s academic standpoint. Although written in economic language, the book also incorporates sociology, history and philosophy and will help the reader make better judgment calls in the face of changing market conditions and economic policies.

Distributive Justice

Distributive Justice
Author: John A. Ryan
Publisher: The Floating Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2014-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1776532236

Prominent Catholic thinker John Ryan made significant contributions not only to the field of theology, but also in the areas of social justice and political science. In this insightful volume, Ryan addresses the moral dimension of income distribution and how it impacts the poor in ways that are immediately apparent, as well as more insidious.

Unequal Foundations

Unequal Foundations
Author: Steven Hitlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2018
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0190465409

Introduction -- A primer on inequality -- The social scientific study of morality -- The difficulty of studying morality across cultures -- Morality as a measure of society -- The theory of inequality and moral emotions -- Affect control theory: how do cultures draw moral lines? -- Methodology and a description of the data -- Empirical analysis -- Conclusion