The last one hundred or so years have seen a tremendous rise of the prestige and clout of economics in academia, politics, and the public imagination. The methods of economics have become the dominant methods of the social sciences, and to some extent even the natural sciences, at large. Questions of public policy are frequently viewed as reducible to economic questions, at least by default. Most fundamentally perhaps, the "economic way of looking at life" (to quote the title of Gary Becker's Nobel Prize lecture) for many has become the overall way of looking at life. However, with great power comes great responsibility. In this course we will investigate the various ways in which being an economist brings with it special responsibilities and the moral principles that should guide professional economists in discharging these responsibilities. Readings will include foundational and applied academic discussions, as well as popular treatises.
- Enseignant·e: Friedemann Rudolf Herbert Bieber