Research Catalog
The moral economy : why good incentives are no substitute for good citizens
- Title
- The moral economy : why good incentives are no substitute for good citizens / Samuel Bowles.
- Author
- Bowles, Samuel
- Publication
- New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2016]
Items in the Library & Off-site
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Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
Text | Request in advance | K487.E3 B69 2016g | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- xvi, 272 pages : illustrations; 22 cm.
- Summary
- Should the idea of economic man-the amoral and self-interested Homo economicus-determine how we expect people to respond to monetary rewards, punishments, and other incentives? Samuel Bowles answers with a resounding "no." Policies that follow from this paradigm, he shows, may "crowd out" ethical and generous motives and thus backfire. But incentives per se are not really the culprit. Bowles shows that crowding out occurs when the message conveyed by fines and rewards is that self-interest is expected, that the employer thinks the workforce is lazy, or that the citizen cannot otherwise be trusted to contribute to the public good. Using historical and recent case studies as well as behavioral experiments, Bowles shows how well-designed incentives can crowd in the civic motives on which good governance depends.
- Series Statement
- The castle lectures in ethics, politics, and economics
- Uniform Title
- Castle lectures in ethics, politics, and economics.
- Alternative Title
- Why good incentives are no substitute for good citizens
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-266) and index.
- Contents
- The problem with homo economicus -- A constitution for knaves -- Moral sentiments and material interests -- Incentives as information -- A liberal civic culture -- The legislator's dilemma -- A mandate for Aristotle's legislator.
- ISBN
- 9780300163803
- 0300163800
- OCLC
- ocn930798081
- 930798081
- SCSB-9397750
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries