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What Do Economists Analyze And Why: Values Or Facts?

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  • DASGUPTA, PARTHA

Abstract

Social thinkers frequently remind us that people differ in their views on what constitutes personal well-being, but that even when they don't differ, they disagree over the extent to which one person's well-being can be permitted to be traded off against another's. In this paper I show, by offering an account of the development of development economics, that in professional debates on social policy, economists speak or write as though they agree on values but differ on their reading of facts. A number of ethicists have concluded from this near-exclusive interest in facts that modern economics must be an ethical desert. It is shown here that the reason research economists analyze facts rather than values is that modern economics is built on broad ethical foundations, capable of being reduced as special cases to the various ethical theories that are currently on offer. Ethics has taken a back seat in modern economics not because contemporary economists are wedded to a “value-free” enterprise, but because the ethical foundations of the subject were constructed over five decades ago and are now regarded to be a settled matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Dasgupta, Partha, 2005. "What Do Economists Analyze And Why: Values Or Facts?," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 221-278, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:ecnphi:v:21:y:2005:i:02:p:221-278_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Julie A. Nelson, 2012. "Poisoning the Well, or How Economic Theory Damages Moral Imagination," GDAE Working Papers 12-07, GDAE, Tufts University.
    2. Martins, Nuno Ornelas, 2021. "The economics of biodiversity: Accounting for human impact in the biosphere," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Claus Dierksmeier, 2011. "The Freedom–Responsibility Nexus in Management Philosophy and Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(2), pages 263-283, June.
    4. Emma Aisbett, 2007. "Why are the Critics So Convinced that Globalization is Bad for the Poor?," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization and Poverty, pages 33-86, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Nikolai Hoberg & Stefan Baumgärtner, 2014. "Value pluralism, trade-offs and efficiencies," Working Paper Series in Economics 311, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    6. Geoffrey Brennan, 2010. "PPE: An institutional view," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 9(4), pages 379-397, November.
    7. Partha Dasgupta, 2008. "Discounting climate change," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 141-169, December.
    8. Herlinde Pauer-Studer, 2006. "Identity, commitment and morality," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 349-369.
    9. Safarzyńska, Karolina, 2013. "Evolutionary-economic policies for sustainable consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 187-195.
    10. Stephen Graham Saunders, 2008. "Toward Bridging The Gap Between Theory And Empirical Reality," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(4), pages 738-748, December.
    11. Nelson, J.A., 2013. "Ethics and the economist: What climate change demands of us," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 145-154.
    12. Hoberg, Nikolai & Strunz, Sebastian, 2018. "When Individual Preferences Defy Sustainability — Can Merit Good Arguments Close the Gap?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 286-293.
    13. Hampicke, Ulrich, 2011. "Climate change economics and discounted utilitarianism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 45-52.
    14. Julie A. Nelson, "undated". "Economic Writing on the Pressing Problems of the Day: The Roles of Moral Intuition and Methodological Confusion," GDAE Working Papers 09-03, GDAE, Tufts University.
    15. Nelson, Julie A., 2012. "Poisoning the Well, or How Economic Theory Damages Moral Imagination," Working Papers 179107, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute.

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