Document Type
Article
Publication Date
June 2009
Abstract
The assumption that contracts are largely impersonal, rational, voluntary agreements drawn up between self-interested individual agents is a convenient fiction, necessary for analysis using conventional economic methods. Papers prepared for a recent conference on ethics and international debt were shaped by just such an assumption. The adequacy of this approach is, however, challenged by evidence about who is affected by international debt, how contracts are actually made and followed, the behavior of actors in financial markets, and the motivations of scholars themselves. This essay uses insights from feminist and relational scholarship from several disciplines to analyze the reasons for this sort of habitual neglect of certain kinds of evidence within economics, and to point towards more adequate alternatives.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Julie A., "Ethics, evidence and international debt" (2009). Economics Faculty Publication Series. 34.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/econ_faculty_pubs/34
Included in
Behavioral Economics Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Economic Policy Commons, Finance Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons
Comments
Link is to working paper version. The final version can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13501780902940760