George F. DeMartino - Böcker

Economists enjoy enormous influence over the life chances of the world's inhabitants, yet do not receive, at any point in their training, any exposure to the professional ethical challenges that their work entails. This lack of attention to professional ethics means that even well-meaning economists will take actions that can cross ethical lines, to the detriment of those whom they seek to serve. The Economist's Oath seeks to initiate a serious conversation among economists about the ethical content of their work, by raising fundamental questions on the nature of what economists do, the reception that ethics has historically had in the profession and why, how this reception is dangerous for all parties involved, the lessons to be drawn from other professions with advanced professional ethics, the principles that could emerge from professional economics ethics, and the kinds of reform in economic education that might be implied by a commitment to professional ethics. The book does not present an ethical exposé or seek to embarrass the profession or individual economists, nor does it seek to lay down an ethical law for the profession. Instead, it more modestly but more importantly advances the case for the inauguration of a new tradition of inquiry. DeMartino argues that critical inquiry by economists into professional economic ethics would enhance the quality of the services that the profession offers, might help to prevent avoidable and consequential errors and could provide the communities that economists serve with a standard to which economists could be held accountable.

For over a century the economics profession has extended its reach to encompass policy formation and institutional design while largely ignoring the ethical challenges that attend the profession's influence over the lives of others. Economists have proven to be disinterested in ethics. Embracing emotivism, they often treat ethics a matter of mere preference. Moreover, economists tend to be hostile to professional economic ethics, which they incorrectly equate with a code of conduct that would be at best ineffectual and at worst disruptive to good economic practice. But good ethical reasoning is not reducible to mere tastes, and professional ethics is not reducible to a code. Instead, professional economic ethics refers to a new field of investigation-a tradition of sustained and lively inquiry into the irrepressible ethical entailments of academic and applied economic practice. The Oxford Handbook of Professional Economic Ethics explores a wide range of questions related to the nature of ethical economic practice and the content of professional economic ethics. It explores current thinking that has emerged in these areas while widening substantially the terrain of economic ethics. There has never been a volume that poses so directly and intensively the question of the need for and content of professional ethics for economics. The Handbook incorporates the work of leading scholars and practitioners, including academic economists from various theoretical traditions; applied economists, beyond academia, whose work has direct and immense social impact; and philosophers, professional ethicists, and others whose work has addressed the nature of "professionalism " and its implications for ethical practice.