How to take part in the WEA online ethics conference

Welcome to the first online conference of the World Economic Association, on ‘Economics in Society: the Ethical Dimension’. The papers will be posted in four groups; each group contains papers dealing with a related topic or topics. These groups are listed below, and you will find the abstracts, along with instructions on how to take part in the conference, here: List of papers and abstracts for the WEA ethics conference 2012, updated March 8 (note this has changed since March 5th to incorporate minor corrections and an additional paper)

Key points:

1. To take part you will need to register. Click on the button to the right of this post. If you are already registered, you won’t see the button. In that case, don’t worry about this step.
2. We will post the papers in groups, starting tonight. To allow time to read them, we propose that the discussion should begin on March 12th. You can post comments before then, but we propose to hold them until the start of the discussion. We may start earlier if a lot of comments begin piling up, but the general idea is to allow time to absorb what’s being said – there are 24 papers in all, which is a lot to read.
3. To leave a comment, find the post containing the paper or group of papers that you’d like to comment on. Underneath you will find the comment form. Click on this, and submit your comment.
4. Comments will be moderated to ensure they are neither illegal nor hateful, and that they are relevant. Spam will be deleted, usually automatically. There will be a delay, therefore, between when you make your post and when it appears. We will try to make this delay as short as possible.
5. The purpose of the conference is to discuss the papers and the issues they raise. This is a new venture and to some extent experimental: we suggest you treat it somewhat like a normal conference – for example, address questions to the authors, comment on or critique what the papers say, respond to other commentators, and work together to help clarify what is at stake. The WEA is committed to pluralism, which means you should recognise the legitimacy of views that differ from yours, even though you can of course express your disagreement as you see fit. So try to be courteous and respectful to others taking part, even if you disagree with them.

What Constitutes Ethical Conduct for Economists? First group of papers

This is the first group of papers for discussion. We propose to begin publishing comments on 12th March.You are welcome to post comments before then; we currently propose to hold them in a queue until the 12th, to allow time to read the papers. If the number of comments mounts, or if we are assailed by a clamour of requests to open the discussion we may reconsider – the merit of an online conference format is flexibility.

Riccardo Baldissone And the Real Butchers, Brewers and Bakers? Towards the Integration of Ethics and Economics

Stuart Birks No ethical issues in economics?

George De Martino  Professional Economic Ethics:Why Heterodox Economists Should Care

Sheila Dow Codes of Ethics for Economists: A Pluralist View

Peter Earl Real-World Economics and the Ethics of Teaching

Alan Freeman Towards an assertive pluralist code of conduct for economists

Tom Walker Crisis, Credit and Credulity: the incredible circulation of a counterfeit idea

Should economics have an ethical content? Second group of papers for the ethics conference

Here are the second group of papers for the conference. Instructions the same as for the last group.

Should economics have an ethical content?

• Manuel Couret Branco: Economics for human rights
• Victoria Chick  Economics and the Good Life: Keynes and Schumacher
• Angelo Fusari Economics and Society. Freedom-creativity and social justice
• Christian Kellermann, Sebastian Dullien, and Hansjörg Herr A Decent Capitalism for a Good Society
• Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid and Martín Puchet Anyul, Ethics and macroeconomics
• Avner Offer A Warrant for Pain: Market Liberalism c. 1970-2010
• Elena Sapir Ethics in Economics and the Geoeconomy as a Synthetic Approach

Is Economics really a Positive Science? Third group of papers for ethics conference discussion

Here is the third group of papers for the conference. Instructions the same as for the last two groups.

Howard Aylesworth: Human – Nature

Geoff Davies: Bad Theory, Bad Practice: Bad Ethics

Gerald Gutenschwager: Is Economics a Value Free Science?

Karey Harrison: Ontological Commitments of Ethics and Economics

Arun G. Mukhopadhyay: Corruption of Economics, Growth Fetishism, and Maldevelopment

Robert Nelson: Economics versus Environmentalism: Core Belief Systems in Conflict

Susumo Ono: Economics as a Moral Science and an Economics of Virtue

Alice Puyana: On Ethics and Economics

The theory and practice of ethics: Fourth and final group of papers for the conference and notice of an additional paper

Here is the fourth group of papers for the conference. In addition, please note that an additional paper (which was previously accepted but was finalised unavoidably late) will shortly be added to group 2 ‘Should Economics have an Ethical Content?’

The theory and practice of ethics

Wendy Olsen The Ethics of the Economics of Working Time of Couples: Theory and Applied Statistical Methods.

Irene Sotiropoulou Short Stories of Dependency 2.0 – Ethics in Economics Research Three years later

John F. Tomer Brain Physiology, Egoistic and Empathic Motivation, and Brain Plasticity: Toward a More Human Economics