Salvation,Damnation, and Economic Incentives

Doctrines of salvation and damnation of the major world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—provide different incentives for performing economic activities and charitable deeds. A comparative analysis of the four religions shows that each promotes accumulation of wealth and hard work, while discouraging idleness, debt, and poverty. The primary difference across the religions is with respect to charity. Religions that allow believers to contribute to their own salvation tend to emphasize varieties of selective charity. Religions that hold salvation is only possible through divine selection stress universal charity.     

Personality Traits,Income, and Economic Ideology

While the psychological underpinnings of social ideology are well established, less is known about the psychological underpinnings of economic ideology. In this study, I assess whether Big Five personality traits are associated with economic ideology and when personality traits are more strongly or more weakly associated with economic ideology. I hypothesize that low income attenuates the association between the Big Five traits and economic ideology. Studies conducted in Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States show that Conscientiousness is positively correlated with economic conservatism, while Agreeableness and Neuroticism are negatively correlated with economic conservatism. Moreover, low income attenuates the association between personality traits and economic ideology. I report a weaker association between Agreeableness and economic ideology among poor people compared to wealthier people in all three countries. Low income also attenuates the association between economic ideology and the traits Openness (Denmark), Extraversion (United Kingdom), and Neuroticism (United States). I contribute to the literature addressing the psychological correlates of economic ideology by showing that (1) economic ideology has a distinct set of personality correlates and (2) low income attenuates the association between some personality traits and economic ideology.     

Economic analysis, common-sense morality and utilitarianism

Economic concepts and methods are used to throw light on some aspects of common-sense ethics and the difference between it and Utilitarianism. (1) Very few exceptions are allowed to the rules of common-sense ethics, because of the cost of information required to justify an exception to Conscience and to other people. No such stringency characterizes Utilitarianism, an abstract system constructed by philosophers. (2) Rule Utilitarianism is neither consistent with common-sense ethics, nor does it maximize utility as has been claimed for it. The same is true of more recent variants of Utilitarianism. (3) Second best and first best are usually identical in common-sense ethics. They are often identical in Utilitarianism when a moral situation can be represented by a Prisoner's Dilemma. However, problems arise in permissive forms of Utilitarianism when it is not obvious that second best should be applied.The author is indebted to the members of the Staff Seminar of this Department, especially Professor J. E. Spencer, for useful discussions. He has also greatly benefited from the comments of two referees.     

Catholic Social Teaching,Economic Inequality,and American Society

The essay begins with an explanation of the underlying theological vision that supports Catholic social teaching's commitment to the centrality of the common good and the role of solidarity as both a virtue and a norm. The vision of humanity as one family and the church as a sacrament of unity is the foundation for a communitarian ethic that prizes inclusion, participation, and relative equality in the quest for a truly just society. An array of social science studies is then employed to show that economic inequality “bleeds” into other realms of public life to undermine fundamental commitments of American society, namely, equal opportunity and political democracy. The essay concludes that an understanding of Catholic social teaching promotes a critical perspective that is deeply at odds with ongoing trends in the U.S. economy.     

Economic,life, and disorder changes: Time-series analyses

Implicit in recent social science research and political discussions is a model linking the economy to mental disorder through the intervening constructs of life change and trauma. Using time-series analysis of a 16-month survey in Kansas City, Missouri (n = 1,140), economic and noneconomic life events and the Midtown scale were predicted using a variety of economic measures for the standard metropoliton statistical area. Both life event variables and the symptom measure were related positively to unemployment, and absolute economic change measures lagged 1 and 2 months. However, the life event variables were not strongly associated with the Midtown scale. Most striking of the subgroup findings was that, on the Midtown scale, the low-income group was more responsive than the middle-income group to economic fluctuations.     

经济伦理冲突与经济伦理学困境

市场经济的道德性神话比它的非道德性神话更偏离事实,如果我们从市场经济是道德经济这一假设前提来研究经济伦理学,经济伦理学就会陷入自相矛盾的困境。在现代市场经济中,经济与伦理的冲突是大量的、必然的、不以人的意志为转移的。经济伦理学的真正任务是揭示二者冲突的必然性根据和根源,在二者的冲突中权衡和选择,借助法律在二者冲突之间形成必要的张力,最终找到缓解直至消融二者冲突的出路。     

作用·反思·趋势--经济伦理学视域中的货币

本文从经济伦理学的角度 ,论述了货币的双重社会作用、对不同时期货币的不同社会批判和伦理反思 ,并论及了货币和社会互动的发展趋势。     

University Education Fees,Economic Rents and Distributive Justice

In this article I defend the claim that subsidies for university education should be substantially reduced. The normative justification for this conclusion derives from a theory of distributive justice called the Compensation Theory of Income Justice, which is most easily understood as a normative version of the positive economic theory of compensating differentials. Relying on the distinction between incentives and economic rents, and after considering two ‘received opinions’ about why large income differentials exist in modern societies, I note that substantial portions of above‐average incomes are likely to be artificial monopoly rents, rather than incentives or natural monopoly rents. Under the Compensation Theory of Income Justice the earning of artificial monopoly rents is not justified. Since subsidisation of university education fees increases lifetime artificial rents, the theory would recommend such subsidies be substantially reduced. I defend this conclusion against objections, the most notable of which is the view that university subsidies help to improve equality of opportunity to university education. I explain how it is possible to maintain the laudable aim of providing equality of opportunity while reducing the subsidisation and, as a consequence, the lifetime artificial rents.     

Conservative Ideology,Economic Conservatism,and Causal Attributions for Poverty and Wealth

The purpose of the study is to analyze the effects of different features of Conservative Ideology, measured via the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Economic Conservatism (EC) scales, on Internal and External casual attributions for poverty and wealth. Participants were a group of 181 university students. Results of multiple regression analyses suggested that EC influenced Internal causal attributions for poverty and wealth positively but influenced the External ones negatively. Of the other measures, only SDO showed a negative effect on External causal attributions. Theoretical and practical implications of results are discussed.     

Holism,Communication, and the Emergence of Public Meaning: Lessons from an Economic Analogy

Holistic accounts of meaning normally incorporate a subjective dimension that invites the criticism that they make communication impossible, for speakers are bound to differ in ways the accounts take to be relevant to meaning, and holism generalises any difference over some words to a difference about all, and this seems incompatible with the idea that successful communication requires mutual understanding. I defend holism about meaning from this criticism. I argue that the same combination of properties (subjective origins of value, holism among values, and ultimate publicity of value) is exhibited by monetary value and take the emergence of equilibrium prices as a model for the emergence of public meanings.

Self-Interest, Economic Beliefs, and Political Party Preference in New Zealand

This study explored the associations among income level, economic beliefs, and political party preference in terms of self-interest and ideological theories of party preference. Results from a survey of 487 New Zealand voters showed that the income levels and economic beliefs of supporters of the four major parties were organized along a single dimension: ACT supporters had the highest income and strongest neoliberal economic beliefs, followed closely by National supporters, whereas Alliance supporters had the lowest income and strongest welfare-state economic beliefs, followed by Labour supporters. However, the prediction of party preference from income and economic beliefs showed a different pattern: Income significantly predicted support for ACT, National, and Alliance; economic beliefs had the strongest influence on National and Labour support; and economic beliefs interacted with income to influence ACT and National support, but not Labour and Alliance support. The results suggest that voters who have gained or lost the most from the implementation of neoliberal policies—in this case, those with the highest and lowest incomes (i.e., ACT and Alliance supporters), respectively—form political party preference mainly from economic self-interest, whereas middle-income voters (i.e., National and Labour supporters) form party preference from ideological congruence. Moreover, higher status individuals may be more likely to use ideology to express self-interested motivation.     

Economic substitutability of electrical brain stimulation, food, and water.

Concurrent variable-ratio schedules of electrical brain stimulation, food, and water were paired in various combinations as reinforcement of rats' lever presses. Relative prices of the concurrent reinforcers were varied by changing the ratio of the response requirements on the two levers. Economic substitutability, measured by the sensitivity of response ratio to changes in relative price, was highest with brain stimulation reinforcement of presses on both levers and lowest with food reinforcement of presses on one lever and water reinforcement of presses on the other. Substitutability with brain stimulation reinforcement of presses on one lever and either food or water reinforcement for presses on the other was about as high as with brain stimulation for presses on both levers. Electrical brain stimulation for rats may thus serve as an economic substitute for two reinforcers, neither of which is substitutable for the other.     

经济不平等对社会阶层流动的影响——基于对美国公共服务供给经验的分析

自20世纪70年代以来,美国的社会阶层流动趋于固化,中产阶级的规模在不断萎缩。导致这种趋势发生的一个根本原因是美国经济不平等在加剧。根据美国人口普查局2017年提供的最新数据计算基尼系数和家庭收入五分位数据,结果均表明美国家庭的贫富分化在不断拉大。尤其是作为家庭虚拟收入的公共服务在美国公民间和区域间的供给存在不公正现象,加剧了美国的经济不平等状况。从制度分析来看,美国的政治体系日益被富有的利益集团掌控,两党轮流执政的体制限制了美国降低经济不平等程度的能力,削弱了中产阶级的社会流动性;长期推行的"新自由主义"经济制度重效率、轻公正,特别是以教育领域为突出代表的公共服务供给不公正现象不断加剧了美国的社会阶级冲突。     

资本主义经济关系中的政治、哲学与伦理——以MEGA2中马克思文本为基础的阅读与理解

<正>政治学与经济学的结合并非始于马克思;19世纪初,随着资本主义经济的迅速发展,在英国和欧洲大陆产生了相当一批政治经济学家,他们尝试从原则①上去理解、认识和论证资本主义经济关系的产生、存在和发展。19世纪40年代中期,马克思的批判思路由哲学、法学、社会学逐渐转向政治经济学。这一方面是其自身思想发展的逻辑性结果:对异化劳动关系的实证性论证,只能从政治经济