The Economists Oath On The Need For And Content Of Professional Economic Ethics
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
ISBN-13: 9780199730568
Description: "Can anyone doubt that economists need a good dousing in ethics? George DeMartino does just that. He does so, not in anger, but with the calm and persuasive tone of an author who knows his subjects and gives full airing to those who may disagree. He has written a book on ethics that is itself ethical. It is a valuable and novel contribution to a profession that keeps repeating its errors. How do we make them listen?" Jeff Madrick, Author of the Case for Big Government.

"DeMartino has broken with the economist's oath never to discuss oaths. It's about time. Economists are taught in graduate school that about ethics one should not dispute, which gives them a warrant to ignore ethics in their science. The teaching is philosophically naive and politically silly. A science of the economy, and certainly an economist advising the prince, depends on ethical commitments, such as the elementary one to seek the truth, or to do no harm, or to support democracy, or to help the poor. DeMartino has courageously opened the conversation, with a masterful command of economics and of English style." Deirdre Mccloskey, Author of Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce and the Cult of Statistical Significance.

"In The Economist's Oath George DeMartino presents the elements of professional ethics, notably principles of prudence and autonomy well-known to doctors and engineers, and he demonstrates their neglected relevance to economists. Careful, respectful and without rancor or rush-to-judgment, this beautifully-argued book is a warning about economics today and a challenge to economists to come." James K. Galbraith, the University of Texas at Austin and Author of the Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.

Economics is among the most influential of all professions. Economists alter the course of economic affairs and deeply affect the lives of current and future generations. Yet, among the major professions, economics lacks a body of professional ethics to guide its practitioners. Over the past century the profession has consistently refused to adopt or even explore professional economic ethics. As a consequences, economists are largely unprepared for the ethcial challenges they face in their work.

The Economist's Oath challenges economic orthodoxy. It builds the case for professional economic ethics step by step--first by rebutting economists' arguments against and then by building an escalating positive case for professional economic ethics. The book surveys what economists do and fully demonstrates that their work is ethically fraught. It explores the principles, questions, and debates that inform professional ethics in other fields, and identifies the lessons that economics can take from the best established bodies of professional ethics. George DeMartino demonstrates that in the absence of professional ethics, well-meaning economists have committed basic, preventable ethical errors that have caused severe harm for societies across the globe. The book investigates the reforms in economic education that would be necessary to distinguish professional ethical obligations, and concludes with the Economist's Oath, drawing on the book's central insights and highlighting the virtues that are required of an "ethical economist."

The Economist's Oath seeks to initiate a serious conversation among economists about the ethcial content of their work. It examines the ethical entailments of the influence over the lives of others that the economics profession now enjoys, and proposes a framework for the new field of professional economic ethics. --Book Jacket.