ABSTRACT

This textbook applies economic ethics to evaluate the free market system and enables students to examine the impact of free markets using the three main ethical approaches: utilitarianism, principle-based ethics and virtue ethics.

Ethics and Economics systematically links empirical research to these ethical questions, with a focus on the core topics of happiness, inequality and virtues. Each chapter offers a recommended further reading list. The final chapter provides a practical method for applying the different ethical approaches to morally evaluate an economic policy proposal and an example of the methodology being applied to a real-life policy.

This book will give students a clear theoretical and methodological toolkit for analyzing the ethics of market policies, making it a valuable resource for courses on economic ethics and economic philosophy.

chapter 1|11 pages

Introduction

part I|49 pages

Free markets, welfare and happiness

chapter 2|16 pages

Utilitarianism

chapter 4|15 pages

Free markets, welfare and happiness

Empirical research

part II|62 pages

Free markets, rights and inequality

chapter 5|20 pages

The ethics of duties and rights

chapter 6|26 pages

The ethics of justice

chapter 7|14 pages

Free markets, rights and inequality

Empirical research

part III|74 pages

Free markets, virtues and happiness

chapter 8|22 pages

Virtue ethics and care ethics

chapter 10|28 pages

Markets, virtues and happiness

Empirical research

part IV|28 pages

Consolidation and integration

chapter 11|8 pages

Liberalism and communitarianism

chapter 12|18 pages

The morality of free markets

Integration and application