Introduction to the Handbook of Teaching Ethics to Economists

It ought to be a truism that economists should learn about ethics as part of their training. Resource issues are, after all, rich in value dilemmas and moral controversy. But economists are trained to think of their discipline as purely technical and value-neutral, as being about resource use and economic management, per se. Against this, the chapters in the Handbook of Teaching Ethics to Economists consider important reasons why economists ought to think more about ethics. These include the ever-present possibility that economic policy will cause profound harm beyond that anticipated by mainstream analysis. Economic analysis also often reflects implicit moral judgements that ought to be exposed, and (as the chapters in the volume show) insights from moral theory can enhance, in a powerful way, economic reasoning and understanding. The purpose of this book is to show how insights from ethics can inform economics, with an emphasis on how that might inform teaching of the discipline in higher education. The book will be of interest to lecturers, students, and practitioners concerned about criticisms of their discipline and its seeming indifference to the ethical dimensions of climate change, equality and social justice. The general reader will benefit from insight into the moral foundations of this influential area of public policy.