For all of their focus on asset prices, financial economists rarely ask if assets are priced ethically—that is, if their prices are compatible with the public good. Yet in a world facing major, possibly catastrophic problems—global warming, for instance, and growing inequality—it is now more important than ever that we allocate capital to projects that will benefit society as a whole, not just today but far into the future. In this book, Christian Gollier develops a powerful method for transforming our societal goals of collective prosperity into the cornerstone of our financial decision making. Ethical Asset Valuation and the Good Society starts by stating transparent moral principles and, from these, derives simple rules that can be used to evaluate saving and investment decisions in terms of the public good. Rather than trying to explain observed asset prices, Gollier derives what these prices ought to be in order to direct capital toward socially desirable investments. He focuses especially on the two prices that drive most financial decisions—the price of time as reflected in the interest rate and the price of risk—and explores the role these play in our long-term planning. If investment projects in renewable energy could be financed at a lower interest rate than those linked to fossil fuels, for instance, the energy transition would be easier to accomplish. Building on criticism of the short-term thinking of financial markets, Gollier suggests ways to shift investment toward the future through the discounting of the valuation of assets and investments with long-term benefits. In this sophisticated but accessible work, Gollier builds a bridge between welfare economics and finance theory to provide a framework for ethical valuation capable of establishing what asset prices should be on the basis of our shared moral values.

Mainstream economics considers individual preferences to be fixed and unchanging. Although psychologists and other social scientists explore how tastes are formed, influenced, and evolve, it is not considered “proper” in orthodox economics to do so. Arguing About Tastes makes the case that economists should abandon the principle that preferences are fixed and instead incorporate into their work how context and experience shape individual tastes. David M. Kreps argues that the discipline must account for dynamic personal tastes when it comes to understanding social exchange, emphasizing human resource management and on-the-job behavior. He develops formal models that illustrate the power of intrinsic motivation and show why applying extrinsic incentives can be counterproductive. Kreps weighs the advantages and disadvantages of the principle de gustibus non est disputandum: there is no arguing about tastes. He calls for a new era of economics in which preferences are taken into account—and not for granted. Arguing About Tastes concludes with responses by the distinguished economists Alessandra Casella and Joseph E. Stiglitz and a final reply by Kreps.

This volume commemorates the 65th birthday of William Vernon Harris (on September 13, 2003), when a group of his former students agreed to honor him with a collection of essays that would represent the wide variety of interests and influences of our advisor and friend. The fifteen papers in fact range chronologically from the first Olympics to late antiquity and discuss various questions of imperialism, law, economy, and religion in the ancient Mediterranean world. The essays share a social historical perspective from which they challenge as many commonly accepted notions in ancient history. The contributors acknowledge their intellectual debt to the formative scholarly acumen of William V. Harris, which adds up to the "tall order" of engaging with his work.

Thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society, Second Edition explores current topics, such as mass social media, cookies, and cyber-attacks, as well as traditional issues including accounting, discrimination, environmental concerns, and management. The new edition also includes an in-depth examination of current and recent ethical affairs, such as the dangerous work environments of off-shore factories for Western retailers, the negligence resulting in the 2010 BP oil spill, the gender wage gap, the minimum wage debate and increasing income disparity, and the unparalleled level of debt in the U.S. and other countries with the challenges it presents to many societies and the considerable impact on the ethics of intergenerational wealth transfers. Key Features Include: Seven volumes, available in both electronic and print formats, contain more than 1,200 signed entries by significant figures in the field Cross-references and suggestions for further readings to guide students to in-depth resources Thematic Reader′s Guide groups related entries by general topics Index allows for thorough browse-and-search capabilities in the electronic edition

The Moral Compass presents a model of morality as a guide to values-based leadership. In a free, pluralist society, diverse stakeholders with competing moral claims present serious challenges to the strategic momentum of business, government, NGOs, and community organizations. Leaders need to know how to manage these challenges effectively. The Moral Compass is their guide. As recent history has repeatedly demonstrated, leaders who avoid, impose, or gloss over the centrality of values in realizing a strategic vision can produce severely flawed outcomes such as loss of confidence, corruption, and market failure. The Moral Compass provides leaders with effective tools to manage this complex, strategic environment by engaging directly with stakeholders to clarify and articulate normative values without privileging or diminishing specific moral traditions. The Moral Compass is rich blend of scholarship, practical wisdom, and usable tools. It is a readable, accessible book that draws from a range of scholarship in humanities, business, science, and social sciences to explain the dynamics of human morality. Academically oriented readers will find intellectually challenging resources and references. Pragmatic readers will be able to use this knowledge to cultivate a robust personal moral compass as a leadership tool for building ethical teams, practice groups, and organizational cultures, for framing and managing moral dilemmas, and for conducting an ethical discernment and decisionmaking process. Ethics in business and leadership studies is emerging as a rich field for scholarship. As an active business faculty member in the field, Dr Thompson is familiar with the published literature of colleagues in the Society for Business Ethics, the International Society for Business Ethics and Economics, the Academy of Management, and the American Philosophical Association. As a blend of theory and practice, The Moral Compass is unique among business ethics books in providing a framework for including and managing the volatility of ethical issues arising from tensions between traditional religious and modern secular morality. Rather than avoid these conflicts, the book anchors their source in the inherent complexity of human neurochemistry, individuation, and socialization as a context for moral meaning and conscience. The book includes numerous exercises in reflection, dialogue, and discernment that enable readers to find common moral ground with people from divergent wisdom traditions. The book synthesizes a wide range of knowledge in a presenting practical model for moral discernment, dialogue, and decision making.

This encyclopedia spans the relationships among business, ethics and society, with an emphasis on business ethics and the role of business in society.

Written by a contemporary pioneer in the area of the universal paradigm and Islamic world-systems, this book offers a fresh post-modernist outlook on new epistemological investigations in the universal paradigm. It addresses the problems of the unity of knowledge in learning systems, thereby invoking the foundations of Islamic epistemology. The author presents a phenomenological model of unity of knowledge in economics, ethics, science and society. Some critical areas where this model can be applied are also explored.As a foundational study on Islamic theory of knowledge covering the fields of Islamic economics, finance, science and society, the book will be valuable to researchers, practitioners and global academic institutions.

Is profit-making the only goal of a business? Should an unbridled market mechanism drive corporate enterprise? To what extent should corporations compensate for the manifest and hidden costs that are incurred by the society at large? These are some of the questions that have engaged specialist economists, business barons, corporate heads and management experts for decades. A consensus has emerged that corporate practices cannot bypass the fundamental demands of ethical behaviour, that administration and policies of governance have to be more transparent and publicly accountable, and that businesses must be sensitive to the community and environment within which they are established. This has led to the emergence of three key concepts of contemporary businesses, namely, business or corporate ethics, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility.

This collection provides a philosophical and historical analysis of the development and current situation of managed care. It discusses the relationship between physician professionalism and patient rights to affordable, high quality care. Its special feature is its depth of analysis as the philosophical, social, and economic issues of managed care are developed. It will be of interest to educated readers in their role as patients and to all levels of medical and health care professionals.

A more ethical economic system is now possible, one that rectifies the crisis spots of our current downturn while balancing the injustices of extreme poverty and wealth. Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen, a scholar and an entrepreneur, outline the shape such an economy might take, identifying its origins in innovations already existent in our production, valuation, and distribution systems. Much like nineteenth-century entrepreneurs, philosophers, bankers, artisans, and social organizers who planned a course for modern capitalism that was more economically efficient and ethically desirable, we now have a chance to construct new instruments, institutions, and infrastructure to reverse the trajectory of a quickly deteriorating economic environment. Considering a multitude of emerging phenomena, Arvidsson and Peitersen show wealth creation can be the result of a new kind of social production, and the motivation of continuous capital accumulation can exist in tandem with a new desire to maximize our social impact. Arvidsson and Peitersen argue that financial markets could become a central arena in which diverse ethical concerns are integrated into tangible economic valuations. They suggest that such a common standard has already emerged and that this process is linked to the spread of social media, making it possible to capture the sentiment of value to most people. They ultimately recommend how to build upon these developments to initiate a radical democratization of economic systems and the value decisions they generate.