Values and Value: Moral Economics

Abstract

This chapter will survey neuroscientific research and discuss recent experiments from my lab on the physiologic basis for interpersonal decision-making to support the follow thesis: most people, most of the time, behave ethically, and that a set of shared values is essential to the functioning of modern economies. I call this "moral economics." Next, I will draw implications for law, institutional design, and public policy that follow from moral economics. What I would like to demonstrate is that values are a critical ingredient in producing the historically high living standards in many nations, and are a prerequisite to economic growth in the developing world.