The Ethical Economics
Study Center

VIDEO LECTURES

Turning Conflict into Understanding: Ethics in Economics - 14 minutes

Brief Intro to the Unique Features of this Course - 12 minutes

Key Features of this Textbook

  • Includes an 80% orthodox approach similar to traditional economics textbooks
  • Demonstrates the critical role ethical behavior plays in assuring economically efficient outcomes (this is missing in traditional economics texts)
  • Emphasizes that the economic method of model building is a simplification of the real world rather than a literal depiction. Models are useful guides, not reality.
  • Provides numerous examples of assumption relaxation as a way of illustrating the importance of key assumptions in models, including implicit ethical assumptions.
  • Incorporates an additive approach to economic models, beginning with the simplest and continually adding more features. For example, supply and demand is not introduced until after perfect competition which in turn is not introduced until after monopoly and oligopoly is covered.
  • Includes greater emphasis on distributional welfare impacts of government policies (who are the winners and losers?)
  • Emphasizes how outcomes change in the presence of market imperfections, a.k.a. market failure.
  • Highlights both public and private methods to correct for market imperfections
  • Includes coverage of political economy issues and the failure of government in democratic societies.
  • Highlights how unethical behavior represents an example of market imperfections.
  • Highlights why economic efficiency requires specific kinds of ethical behavior
  • Highlights the theoretical support for economic ideologies on both the right and the left. This is done by comparing ideas expressed by Joesph Stiglitz and Milton Friedman, among others.
  • Notes that economic disagreements are often based on whether one believes more in market failure or more in government failure.
  • Showcases the contributions of famous thinkers in economics from Adam Smith to Elinor Ostrom.
  • Provides students a foundation upon which to determine their own political and economic ideology. (the text's bias is centrist and emphasizes the both pros and cons on the right and the left)