Approaches to Ethics and Justice

If, as we have argued in the previous chapter, value-free economics is impossible, what ethical values should inform the discipline? If people do not behave simply as self-interested optimizers, what moral theories might guide their actions? What moral theory should be used to answer public policy questions? Finally, if individual preferences are not accepted as the overriding goal of the economic system, what ethical benchmarks or objectives should take its place? None of these issues can be understood, much less resolved, without some sort of ethical theory as a guide.