Are economists amoral? Contemporary economic thought and the distinction between values and prices |
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Authors: | Robert E Prasch |
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Institution: | (1) Middlebury College, Middlebury, USA |
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Abstract: | Underlying the “clash of cultures” between economists and the rest of the citizenry is a way of thinking about rationality,
consumer choice and policy that periodically reveals a confusion between values and prices on the side of economists. Lawrence
Summers' famous memo on the underpollution of the Third World was a case in point. Sadly, this was not an isolated incident.
On the contrary, mainstream economists are conditioned, by the categories they employ, to regularly conflate value with price.
This is particularly the case when it comes to theorizing about consumer choice and the meaning(s) to be ascribed to the set
of market prices that emerge from the aggregate of these choices. This paper explores the dimensions of the problem and suggests
other frameworks of choice that can enrich our understanding of consumer behavior and the significance of the set of prices
that emerge in the market.
Thanks go to Falguni A. Sheth, Kevin McCarron and the audience at the Association for Social Economics Annual Meetings, Washington,
D.C., 2003 where an earlier version of this paper was presented. |
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