Ethics Of Socioeconomics

This book is intended as a warning against the kind of hard-core liberalism which blames state intervention for the disappointing results achieved in matters of macroeconomic, competition and social welfare policy. In calling attention to the social dimension of economics, the book stresses the need for an ethical yardstick which can only be pro vided by an interdisciplinary approach to the economy. One current school of thought claims to have bridged the gap by por traying economics as both positive and normative. However, this inter pretation is inadequate. The positive aspect of economics, reflecting an approach common in the natural sciences, is based on observable facts. It highlights causal relationships and seeks to analyse economic mechanisms on the basis of available information. This has led to an emphasis on purely deductive methods, which form the basis for many of the conclusions in main stream economics. This current of thought is typified by the neoclassical school, which takes as its main premise the much-disputed hypothesis of economic rationality. Human behaviour is deemed to be rational when consumers maximize their satisfaction and producers their profits, sub ject to the constraints of income and production costs respectively. Opt imal strategies for both consumers and producers can best be determined by the mechanism of market forces.

The book analyzes socioeconomic through the lens of a lawyer. In the past decade the world has witnessed some severe financial and economic crises, especially the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The author states that the socio-economic order has in the past four to five decades been thoroughly redesigned, generally favouring models that prioritize the free market over the public interest or even, more generally, government operation. He works out that during four to five decades, globalized, capitalist societies are facing a multiplicity of fundamental problems, such as: (1) increasing debt that severely burdens both the private and public sectors; (2) persistent poverty and an ever-increasing polarization between rich and poor, in addition to (3) intractable environmental problems that, fifty years after the Club of Rome's report entitled ‘Limits to growth’ (1972), has dragged the world into what in recent years has been referred to as "climate change." The book explains why all this is the direct result of value choices made from the late Middle Ages onwards, when in the Western world the societal models of that time were increasingly abandoned for a societal model that came to rely on the primacy of economic interests. The book not only subjects the ethical choices but also examines various problems it has caused and probes for possible ways out. This is an open access book.

This book explores how moral factors exert influence on economy from an economic and philosophical point of view. The book takes an in-depth look at topics such as efficiency and coordination, fairness and identification, law and self-discipline and the third distribution, which have long been the focus of public attention. As expounded in this book, in places where regulation by market or government does work, there are still some gaps that the two modes of regulation cannot reach owing to the limitations of their influence. Each does compensate for the other’s limitations, but only up to a point. The gap can only be filled by custom and morality. In this sense, regulation by custom and morality can be viewed as a regulatory mode beyond market and government. In a market economy, market regulation of resource allocation as a basic mode can be called “primary regulation” and government regulation, as a high-level mode, “secondary regulation.” Regulation that relies on the force of custom and morality, a regulation beyond market and government, can be called “the third regulation.” A variety of causes can give rise to market failure or government paralysis, rendering regulation by market or government ineffective or extremely limited. But even in such circumstances, custom and morality still exist and continue working as normal. What affects resource allocation, socio-economic operations and living standards is not just the power of market or government, but that of custom and morality. This book is one of the three published writings that best reflect Professor Li Yining’s academic standpoint. Although written in economic language, the book also incorporates sociology, history and philosophy and will help the reader make better judgment calls in the face of changing market conditions and economic policies.

Selected papers from the Second Annual International Conference on Socio-Economics, held at George Washington U., Washington, DC, March 1990, provide a snapshot of the current state of research being pursued across a range of established academic disciplines with respect to this emerging movement, formally launched by the publication of Amitai Etzioni's book The moral dimension in 1988. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Respect project involved the development of guidelines, or codes, in a number of separate areas: data protection, intellectual property rights, research ethics, professional issues and professional competencies. Following consultation on these, an overall of code of practice was developed covering all these areas. This was accompanied by a user's guide to socio-economic research, designed for those who commission research, evaluate research proposals and review the results. This report addresses one aspect of the Respect project: the development of a set of ethical guidelines or a 'code' of standards to inform the conduct of socio-economic research in the European Union. These guidelines are aimed at all those involved in socio-economic research, whether commissioning, bidding for or managing projects, or working as part of a research team on a project.