The Economist's Oath: On the Need for and Content of Professional Economic Ethics

by George F. DeMartino

Economics is today among the most influential of all professions. Economists alter the course of economic affairs and deeply affect the lives of current and future generations. Yet, virtually alone among the major professions, economics lacks a body of professional ethics to guide its practitioners. Over the past century the profession consistently has refused to adopt or even explore professional economic ethics. As a consequence, economists are largely unprepared for the ethical challenges they face in their work.

The Economist's Oath challenges the economic orthodoxy. It builds the case for professional economic ethics step by step-first by rebutting economists' arguments against and then by building an escalating positive case for professional economic ethics. The book surveys what economists do and demonstrates that their work is ethically fraught. It explores the principles, questions, and debates that inform professional ethics in other fields, and identifies the lessons that economics can take from the best established bodies of professional ethics. George DeMartino demonstrates that in the absence of professional ethics, well-meaning economists have committed basic, preventable ethical errors that have caused severe harm for societies across the globe. The book investigates the reforms in economic education that would be necessary to recognize professional ethical obligations, and concludes with the Economist's Oath, drawing on the book's central insights and highlighting the virtues that
are required of the "ethical economist."

The Economist's Oath seeks to initiate a serious conversation among economists about the ethical content of their work. It examines the ethical entailments of the immense influence over the lives of others that the economics profession now enjoys, and proposes a framework for the new field of professional economic ethics.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published December 29, 2010

Reviews

[Mike Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

DeMartino lays out an excellent treatise for the need for ethical action in economics, and argues convincingly on aspects economists should consider in their professional career. However, he partly fails to follow his own argumentation, though the depth of his analysis counter this substantially. Written directly at an economist as a reader, the writing is broad yet direct, and reads well and easily.

The two parts of the book - the case for ethics, and the contents of such - are both well argued and substantiated. Counterarguments to why economics requires ethics, especially on the point of avoiding certainty, are addressed directly across and additional context is annotated throughout. The inclusion and primacy of uncertainty as a key part of the economic action, as well as the exploration of maximax principles are quite well explained.

The only real error here is how DeMartino seems to apply his logic largely against neoclassical economics. It is not that he doesn't address other schools and their failures, but the proportions are so disparate that it clearly comes across as the ethics being applied against a particular school alone. This implication seriously devalues his own argument, as the case for ethics also applies equally to other forms of economic thinking, especially to more interventionist schools. While the content of the book makes it very easy to identify this error, it is notable nevertheless.

The first half of the book and a few chapters of the second are absolute masterpieces in my view. These will likely be a core part of my own rereading for the future, and would definitely be a strong recommendation for anyone working or learning economics.