Ethics and Economics

Undergraduate catalogue

An introduction to the ethics of market exchange and of economic regulation intended to promote ethical goals. We ask how ethical commitments evolve, and how they influence competition and cooperation. We consider the moral dimension of outsourcing, sweatshops, wage gaps, price gouging, price discrimination, time-inconsistent preferences and policies that exploit them ("nudging"), trade in repugnant goods (such as human organs), poverty, and the inequality of income and health. Prerequisite: ECO 100. Two 90-minute lectures.