Economics and Ethics

Studying the complex and evolving relationship between economics and ethics can provide interesting and important insights to improve the theory and practice of socially responsible business management. Economics is concerned with the development and application of positive (i.e., scientific) means to achieve efficient allocation of productive resources to enhance material prosperity and satisfy consumer preferences. Ethics is concerned with the development and application of normative rules to guide human behavior toward realization of the good life, based on expectations of personal fulfillment, fair treatment, and equitable social outcomes. While both efficient and equitable outcomes are desirable and to some extent complementary, they are not necessarily equivalent. This gives rise to the ongoing tension between economic and ethical theory and practice and the recent search for ...