Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

In accordance with the educational objectives of the Degree program, the seminar aims to develop critical, applied and interdisciplinary knowledge - at the intersection of Economics and Ethics - providing an introduction to the most recent attempts to re-humanize economic science.

The Seminar shows how and why ethics – consideration of right and wrong – matters to economics and economic policies. It focuses on some topical and controversial issues of methodology, applied ethics and policies: Does science need ethics? How do ethical judgments affect economic analysis? Which economic and/or ethical criterion should we adopt to evaluate public-policies? For example: efficiency and cost-benefit analysis and/or other ethical criterion based on equality and social justice, individual freedom, well-being, etc.? Do markets crowd out moral and intrinsic motivations? Are there moral limits to markets? What money can or cannot buy?

In addressing the aforementioned issues and their implications, the Seminar will follow the educational objective contained in the warning of the Nobel laureate in economics, Friedrich von Hayek: "nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist — and I am even tempted to add that the economist who is only an economist is likely to become a nuisance if not a positive danger." (F.A. von Hayek, Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, 1967). If this was true half a century ago, it is even more true today, to the extent that an interdisciplinary approach and critical thinking skills are needed to face the challenges of the complexity of the contemporary world.

By actively participating in lectures, practical course activities, working groups and individual presentations, as well as by succesfully passing the the final exam, the student will have acquired the following skills:

Knowledge and understanding: will be able to recognize the value assumptions made by economists, the main contemporary ethic-economic issues and their concrete societal and policy implications.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: will be able to interpret and apply the notions acquired during the course to critically evaluate public-policies and their ethical assumptions and consequences. Materials on the digital platform of the course, homework, classroom discussions, short tests and multiple choice questions will allow students to verify their skills in real time.

Autonomy of judgment: will be able to collect materials, to read, interpret and analyze with critical thinking key texts, experiments, papers, sources, prevailing or minority opinions, scholars’ criticisms and proposals, and will acquire the ability to independently evaluate these materials by formulating their own critical judgment on the application of them to concrete cases, identifying the appropriate solutions to practical cases through class discussions, individual research and/or presentation.

Communication skills: will learn to put into practice communication skills - through classroom discussions and individual presentations - related to different contexts and problems, thus acquiring further argumentative skills.

Learning skills: the acquired knowledge will allow to understand and interpret autonomously contentious contemporary issues of economic philosophy, developing a solid knowledge of the fundamental aspects of the subject-matter that will allow the students to continue to deepen autonomously the topics addressed in the course for further researches in view of the degree thesis and to undertake the various post-graduate courses.

The Seminar program (12 hours overall, 6 lessons of 2 hours each) is divided into four interconnected parts. It starts from the historical and methodological reasons for the divorce between ethics and economics and then analyzes three contemporary and controversial fields of study that show in which cases and why economics cannot avoid dealing with ethics:

1) Ethics and Economics: positive and normative economics, facts and values, methodological and ethical value judgments;

2) Welfare and Well-being: welfare economics, efficiency, well-being and preferences satisfaction;

3) Markets, Morals and What Money Can't Buy: commodification, crowding out of intrinsic motivations, and the moral limits to market;

4) Inequality and Distributive Justice: rights, primary goods and capabilities

Lectures and discussions, 12 hours overall (2 CFU).

Lessons are conceived in the logic of active, individual and collective learning of students through the analysis of case studies, film and documentaries, simulations, problem-solving, working groups and group decision-making, collective discussions in the classroom (or virtual room) and final presentation of individual or group works/research.

For the purpose of active learning, students are required to read or view in advance the materials discussed in the lessons and uploaded in advance on the course web page (section "Didactic material"). The materials to be viewed in advance may include: slides, videos, short articles / chapters, text extracts, etc.

The assessment of learning outcomes will occur through an oral examination concerning one/two short article/s or book chapter/s chosen by the student (among those listed in the bibliography).

For the purpose of passing the exam, the student must demonstrate the ability of: a) critical thinking; b) critically compare the chosen reading with the topics and problems dealt with in class; c) knowing how to take a stand between competing theories or theses.

The final evaluation, for the purpose of successfully passing the seminar and obtaining the 2 credits, is given by the sum of the two following parameters:

- 50%: level of interaction and participation in the scheduled activities and classroom discussions;

- 50%: Exam at the end of the seminar.

Mandatory readings:

• J. Reiss, Philosophy of Economics. A contemporary Introduction, Routledge, 2013: Ch. 1: “The Why, What and How of Philosophy of Economics” (pp. 1-11); Ch. 12: “Welfare and Well-being”; Ch. 13: “Market and Morals”; Ch. 14: “Inequality and Distributive Justice” (pp. 209-277).

 

Further readings [note: this sections is currently being updated]:

Students will have choose one or more among the following readings according to their research interests:

Ethics and Economics: 

• Sen, A. (1999). On ethics and economics. Oxford University Press: Ch 1 and Ch 2.
• Hausman, D. M., & McPherson, M. S. (1993). Taking ethics seriously: economics and contemporary moral philosophy. Journal of economic literature, 31(2), 671-731.
• White, M. (2018).On the Relationship between Ethics and Economics. Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 52: 45-56; AND Davis, J. B. (2018). Comment on White. On the Relationship between Ethics and Economics. Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 52: 57-68.

 

Markets, Morals and What Money Can't Buy:

• Sandel, M. (1998) What Money Can't Buy. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values.
• Bruni, L., & Sugden, R. (2013). Reclaiming virtue ethics for economics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(4), 141-64.
• Hodgson, G. M. (2020). On the limits of markets. Journal of Institutional Economics, 1-18. AND Brennan, J., & Jaworski, P. (2020). If you can do it for free, there's some way to do it for money. Journal of Institutional Economics, 1-5.
• Besley, Timothy. 2013. “What’s the Good of the Market? An Essay on Michael Sandel’s What Money Can’t Buy.” Journal of Economic Literature 51(2): 478 – 95
• Frey, Bruno S. 1994. “How Intrinsic Motivation Is Crowded In and Out.” Rationality and Society, 6(3): 334 – 52.
• van Staveren, I. 2009. “Comunitarianism and the Market: A Paradox.” Review of Social Economy 67(1): 25 – 47.
• Silvestri, P. (2019) The All Too Human Welfare State: Freedom Between Gift and Corruption. Teoria e critica della regolazione sociale, 2: 123-145.  https://doi.org/10.7413/19705476007
• Brennan, J., & Jaworski, P. M. (2015). Markets without symbolic limits. Ethics, 125(4), 1053-1077.
• Brennan, J., & Jaworski, P. (2015). In defense of commodification. Moral Philosophy and Politics, 2(2), 357.
• Storr, V. H., & Choi, G. S. (2019). Do markets corrupt our morals?. Springer Nature: Introduction and conclusion, AND a chapter freely chosen by the student.

 

Inequality and Distributive Justice:

• Hausman D.M., McPherson M., Satz D., Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy, Cambridge (third edition), spec. Introduction, Ch. 1: "Ethics and Economics", pp. 1-15 and part III: "Liberty, Rights, Equality and Justice", pp. 173-243.
• Sandel M. Justice. What's the right thing to do? (Any Edition): Ch. 2: "The greatest happiness principle: utilitarianism"; Ch. 3: "Do we own ourselves?: libertarianism"; Ch. 6: "The case for equality: John Rawls"
• Nozick, R. (1974). Distributive Justice. Philosophy & Public Affairs 3: 45-126.
• Rawls, J. (1969). Distributive Justice. In Ryan (ed.) Justice, Oxford UP 1993; also in Stewarts (ed.) Readings in Political Philosophy.
• Sen A., Inequality Reexamined, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992, Introduction, Ch. 1: "Equality of What?", Ch. 2: "Freedom, Achievement and Resources"; AND Sen, A. (2003) Development as capability expansion. Readings in Human Development. Concepts, Measures and Policies for a Development Paradigm, pp. 3-16

Students interested in the Seminar are requested to register as soon as possible through Moodle (button at the bottom of the page).

The Seminar will be held in the Second Semester

More detailed information will be given in the first lesson.

For further information, please contact the teacher by email.