ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the major points on which economists have challenged business ethicists. It describes some of the more promising avenues of research—areas in which economic theory has made, and continues to make, a constructive contribution to moral reflection. Furthermore, while philosophers have usually been forced to posit a hypothetical skeptic with whom to engage, business ethicists often enjoyed the advantage of being able to find a real live one working just down the hall. If one had to point to a single factor that was the most important in transforming the relationship between economics and business ethics, the most obvious candidate would be the development and diffusion of "rational choice" theory in the 1980s and 1990s. While the "law and economics" movement brought some discredit upon itself by overextending the analysis into domains that were a poor fit, in the area of corporate law it has done an enormous amount to enrich our understanding.
