ABSTRACT
The idea that moral norms affect economic behaviour, widely accepted in classical political economy (see, among others, Porta et al. 2001), has been neglected for many years, and replaced (albeit implicitly) by the view that agents choose in an institutional vacuum. However, the simple standard picture of the neoclassical homo oeconomicus dates to more recent years; as a matter of fact, many early neoclassical writers emphasized the role of ethical factors in determining individual and collective choices.
