In "Ethics and Economic Progress", Nobel Prize-winning economist James M. Buchanan argues that ethical or moral constraints on human behaviour exert important economic effects. He considers the question: "Why are we better off, by our own reckoning, when we work harder, save more, and deal honestly in markets and in politics?". This non-technical book aims to open up the entire economics-ethics nexus for examination. Part 1 looks at behaviours and standards that can be subsumed under the term "Puritan ethics". The work ...
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In "Ethics and Economic Progress", Nobel Prize-winning economist James M. Buchanan argues that ethical or moral constraints on human behaviour exert important economic effects. He considers the question: "Why are we better off, by our own reckoning, when we work harder, save more, and deal honestly in markets and in politics?". This non-technical book aims to open up the entire economics-ethics nexus for examination. Part 1 looks at behaviours and standards that can be subsumed under the term "Puritan ethics". The work ethic and the saving ethic may not be fashionable today, but Buchanan asserts that many modern attitudes and habits relate to the decline in productivity growth in the economy. If we acknowledge that moral values are important to our economic well-being, it follows that we must all "pay the preacher", on strictly economic grounds. Part 2 extends the argument, examining the implications for ethical norms that describe the behaviour of taxpayers or public programme users and the economics of the work ethic as it applies to non-labour resources. The last chapter, perhaps the most controversial, suggests that Adam Smith's distinction between productive and non-productive labour, which has been almost universally dismissed by economists, may indeed have economic relevance. Chapters 1,2 and 3 were presented in 1991 as the first lectures in the W.R. Howell Senior, Second Century Lecture Series at the University of Oklahoma.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Clean and tight copy, first 9 pages show some highlighting none thereafter, 156 pages from Nobel Prize winning economist.
