Awards

• "Winner of Selected one of CHOICE's ""Outstanding Academic Title of 2012""."
• "Winner of Selected one of ^ICHOICE^R's ""Outstanding Academic Title of 2012""."
• Winner of Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2012.
• Winner of Selected one of CHOICE's Outstanding Academic Title of 2012 .
• Winner of Selected one of ^ICHOICE^R's ""Outstanding Academic Title of 2012"".

Overview

This book explains why moral beliefs can and likely do play an important role in the development and operation of market economies. It provides new arguments for why it is important that people genuinely trust others-even those whom they know don't particularly care about them-because in key circumstances institutions are incapable of combating opportunism. It then identifies specific characteristics that moral beliefs must have for the people who possess them to be regarded as trustworthy. When such moral beliefs are held with sufficient conviction by a sufficiently high proportion of the population, a high trust society emerges that supports maximum cooperation and creativity while permitting honest competition at the same time. Such moral beliefs are not tied to any particular religion and have nothing to do with moral earnestness or the set of moral values-what matters is how they affect the way people think about morality. Such moral beliefs are based on abstract ideas that must be learned so they are matters of culture, not genes, and are therefore able to explain differences in economic performance across societies.

Full Product Details

9780199360598

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Reviews

This is a very interesting and timely argument....the message is important and sobering. * The Enlightened Economist blog *

This is a very interesting and timely argument....the message is important and sobering. --The Enlightened Economist blog Following in the tradition of Adam Smith, David Rose provides a modern economic perspective on how 'the wealth of nations' depends on 'a theory of moral sentiments.' This book provides such a theory and explains why all societies attempt to inculcate moral restraints on homo economicus. After reading it you have new insights into how and why morality is so important to economic prosperity. --Terry L. Anderson, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University and Executive Director, Property and Environment Research Center As members of the American body politic, we are failing to transmit intergenerational elements of our cultural heritage without which a free and prosperous society cannot exist. This book brings attention to the moral bases for the civic order that we too often take for granted. Only if we first understand what is happening can the erosion of our moral capital be turned around. --James M. Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1986 How did we move from the hunter-gatherer societies of our forbearers to the complex globally-interconnected world of today? How does one maintain prosperity when localized knowledge and large numbers of market participants make 'golden opportunities' for undetected opportunistic behavior ever more possible? What sets of moral beliefs are most conducive to maximizing general prosperity, and how are they inculcated? Drawing on, but also going beyond, the ideas of such thinkers as the Smiths (both Adam and Vernon), Douglass North, F. A. Hayek, and others, as well as his own fertile mind, David Rose provides the answers to these and other questions in a book that explores the interstices of economics, cultural studies, and applied moral theory. It is a compelling account. --Bruce Caldwell, Duke University Modern economics is returning to its moral philosophy roots; D

Author Information

David C. Rose is Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1987 from the University of Virginia. He has published scholarly articles on a wide range of topics in micro and macroeconomics. He frequently contributes to policy debates through radio and television interviews and Op-Eds.

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