“A new turn to religion in Smith studies helps provide a bertter understanding of the great Scottish philosopher and political economist than has traditionally been on offer. […] Rather than providing a close textual reading and explication of a particular passage or a comprehensive survey of religious and theological themes in Smith’s work, this essay sets the stage for a broad theological understanding of Smith.”
“The promises of virtualization and automation are often exaggerated, as are their dangers. It is possible for an increasingly virtualized and automated economy to actually be more humane, but only if such an economy does justice to the human realities of incarnation and relation”, so Moral Markets researcher Jordan Ballor argues.
Two hundred years ago, a seemingly megalomaniac and even hopeless project was started in the West: overcoming poverty by creating more prosperity. This project was called “Progress”. Two hundred years later we can only conclude that this project was more successful than we could have anticipated. However, this project also has some serious shadow sides. As humanity we have to start a new, at first sight almost equally megalomaniac project for the next hundred years: making our prosperity sustainable.
Since the liberalization of the Western economies in the 1980s and 1990s, income inequality has increased dramatically. In the public debate, the question arises how this inequality impacts societies and what role it plays in the functioning of the economy. Bjorn Lous has studied this issue, based on the question: How do the various aspects of economic freedom relate to (inequality of) life satisfaction and trust through their relationship with income inequality?
According to Govert Buijs “we have come to misunderstand transactions as simple, one-dimensional operations. In this way we have forgotten what it takes for a market to work well.” Chapter 6 of the book Finance and the Common Good (2019, Amsterdam University Press).
The motives that companies have for sustainable business vary. Two types of motives are often...
This week it became public that at the Dutch company ASML trade secrets were stolen by former employees of Chinese descent. Many people were schocked, because ASML is the flagship of the Dutch knowledge economy. That this is such a sensitive issue is also because recently growing concerns have arisen about how China is developing into a world power.
You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. And wherever there’s business, you’ll find morally reprehensible behaviour. Economist and PhD candidate Annemiek Schilpzand, from Nijmegen School of Management, is trying to unravel the relationship between the market and morality.
Just published: Johan Graafland (2019). “Economic freedom and corporate environmental responsibility: The role of small government and freedom from government regulation.” In: Journal of Cleaner Production, volume 218, 1 May 2019, Pages 250-258.
Modernity, especially the free market, has liberated Western man. But does it also offer a good answer to the question of the good life? Not necessarily, because the free market may also be dehumanizing.
