ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that modern day "standard economics" has often suggested a set of economic policies that may be "auto-corrosive," in the sense of tending to undermine the morality which underpins the efficiency of market processes. It describes a definition of "standard economics," before discussing the sense in which an academic discipline might encourage specific types of policies and the ways in those policies might conceivably matter for morality and for market processes. The chapter argues that the issues neglected by standard economics are major, not minor, determinants of personal well-being. It identifies some of the policy choices "standard economics" favors — particularly with respect to working time and economic insecurity — with the objective of increasing marketed output, but to the detriment of community social ties. Contractual incompleteness and the possibility of opportunistic behavior create efficiency advantages to justified trust.
