IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v131y2015i1p43-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reciprocity as a Foundation of Financial Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy Johnson

Abstract

This paper argues that the subsistence of the fundamental theorem of contemporary financial mathematics is the ethical concept ‘reciprocity’. The argument is based on identifying an equivalence between the contemporary, and ostensibly ‘value neutral’, Fundamental Theory of Asset Pricing with theories of mathematical probability that emerged in the seventeenth century in the context of the ethical assessment of commercial contracts in a framework of Aristotelian ethics. This observation, the main claim of the paper, is justified on the basis of results from the Ultimatum Game and is analysed within a framework of Pragmatic philosophy. The analysis leads to the explanatory hypothesis that markets are centres of communicative action with reciprocity as a rule of discourse. The purpose of the paper is to reorientate financial economics to emphasise the objectives of cooperation and social cohesion and to this end, we offer specific policy advice. Copyright The Author(s) 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Johnson, 2015. "Reciprocity as a Foundation of Financial Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 43-67, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:131:y:2015:i:1:p:43-67
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2257-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-014-2257-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-014-2257-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Roover, Raymond, 1958. "The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 418-434, December.
    2. J. Graafland, 2010. "Calvin’s Restrictions on Interest: Guidelines for the Credit Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(2), pages 233-248, October.
    3. Donald MacKenzie, 2008. "An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262633671, December.
    4. J. Michael Harrison & Stanley R. Pliska, 1981. "Martingales and Stochastic Integrals in the Theory of Continous Trading," Discussion Papers 454, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    5. Fabio Monsalve, 2014. "Scholastic just price versus current market price: is it merely a matter of labelling?," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 4-20, February.
    6. Beunza, Daniel & Stark, David, 2012. "From dissonance to resonance: cognitive interdependence in quantitative finance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 45604, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Murnighan, J. Keith & Saxon, Michael Scott, 1998. "Ultimatum bargaining by children and adults," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 415-445, August.
    8. Robert C. Merton, 2005. "Theory of rational option pricing," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 8, pages 229-288, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Harrison, J. Michael & Pliska, Stanley R., 1983. "A stochastic calculus model of continuous trading: Complete markets," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 313-316, August.
    10. Fehr, Ernst & Henrich, Joseph, 2003. "Is Strong Reciprocity a Maladaptation? On the Evolutionary Foundations of Human Altruism," IZA Discussion Papers 712, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. William Goetzmann, 2003. "Fibonacci and the Financial Revolution," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm432, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Mar 2004.
    12. Robert S. Pindyck, 2013. "Climate Change Policy: What Do the Models Tell Us?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 860-872, September.
    13. Scholes, Myron S, 1972. "The Market for Securities: Substitution versus Price Pressure and the Effects of Information on Share Prices," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 179-211, April.
    14. Thaler, Richard H, 1988. "The Ultimatum Game," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 195-206, Fall.
    15. Alp Simsek, 2013. "Speculation and Risk Sharing with New Financial Assets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 1365-1396.
    16. Paul A. Samuelson, 1970. "The Fundamental Approximation Theorem of Portfolio Analysis in terms of Means, Variances and Higher Moments," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 37(4), pages 537-542.
    17. repec:wly:soecon:v:80:4:y:2014:p:875-889 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Andrew G. Haldane & Robert M. May, 2011. "Systemic risk in banking ecosystems," Nature, Nature, vol. 469(7330), pages 351-355, January.
    19. Fabio Caccioli & Matteo Marsili & Pierpaolo Vivo, 2009. "Eroding market stability by proliferation of financial instruments," Papers 0910.0064, arXiv.org.
    20. Frankfurter, George M., 2006. "The Theory of Fair Markets (TFM) toward a new finance paradigm," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 130-144.
    21. Beckert, Jens, 2007. "The social order of markets," MPIfG Discussion Paper 07/15, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    22. Edith Dudley Sylla, 2003. "Business Ethics, Commercial Mathematics, and the Origins of Mathematical Probability," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 35(5), pages 309-337, Supplemen.
    23. Harrison, J. Michael & Kreps, David M., 1979. "Martingales and arbitrage in multiperiod securities markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 381-408, June.
    24. Hirschman, Albert O, 1982. "Rival Interpretations of Market Society: Civilizing, Destructive, or Feeble?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 1463-1484, December.
    25. Harrison, J. Michael & Pliska, Stanley R., 1981. "Martingales and stochastic integrals in the theory of continuous trading," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 215-260, August.
    26. Haug, Espen Gaarder & Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, 2011. "Option traders use (very) sophisticated heuristics, never the Black-Scholes-Merton formula," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 97-106, February.
    27. Paul A. Samuelson, 2011. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection by Dynamic Stochastic Programming," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & Edward O Thorp & William T Ziemba (ed.), THE KELLY CAPITAL GROWTH INVESTMENT CRITERION THEORY and PRACTICE, chapter 31, pages 465-472, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    28. Smith, Adam, 1776. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1776.
    29. Geoffrey Poitras, 2000. "The Early History of Financial Economics, 1478–1776," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2151.
    30. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    31. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-257, August.
    32. K. J. Arrow, 1964. "The Role of Securities in the Optimal Allocation of Risk-bearing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 31(2), pages 91-96.
    33. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    34. Bryan Caplan, 2007. "Introduction to The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies," Introductory Chapters, in: The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, Princeton University Press.
    35. Levy, Jonathan, 2012. "Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674047488, Spring.
    36. Kristi Yuthas & Rodney Rogers & Jesse F. Dillard, 2002. "Communicative Action and Corporate Annual Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 141-157, November.
    37. Nicholas Stern, 2008. "The Economics of Climate Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 1-37, May.
    38. Cox, John C. & Ross, Stephen A. & Rubinstein, Mark, 1979. "Option pricing: A simplified approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 229-263, September.
    39. Zimmermann, Heinz & Hafner, Wolfgang, 2007. "Amazing discovery: Vincenz Bronzin's option pricing models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 531-546, February.
    40. F. Caccioli & M. Marsili & P. Vivo, 2009. "Eroding market stability by proliferation of financial instruments," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 71(4), pages 467-479, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Federica Bianchi & Francesco Bartolucci & Stefano Peluso & Antonietta Mira, 2020. "Longitudinal networks of dyadic relationships using latent trajectories: evidence from the European interbank market," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 69(4), pages 711-739, August.
    2. Daniela Defazio & Chiara Franzoni & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2021. "How Pro-social Framing Affects the Success of Crowdfunding Projects: The Role of Emphasis and Information Crowdedness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 357-378, June.
    3. Antonio José Heras Martínez & David Teira & Pierre-Charles Pradier, 2016. "What was fair in acturial fairness?," Post-Print halshs-01400213, HAL.
    4. Maria Figueroa-Armijos & John P. Berns, 2022. "Vulnerable Populations and Individual Social Responsibility in Prosocial Crowdfunding: Does the Framing Matter for Female and Rural Entrepreneurs?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 377-394, May.
    5. Yanju Zhou & Yi Yu & Xiaohong Chen & Xiongwei Zhou, 2020. "Guanxi or Justice? An Empirical Study of WeChat Voting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 201-225, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy C. Johnson, 2013. "Reciprocity as the foundation of Financial Economics," Papers 1310.2798, arXiv.org.
    2. Timothy C. Johnson, 2012. "Ethics and Finance: the role of mathematics," Papers 1210.5390, arXiv.org.
    3. Munk, Claus, 2015. "Financial Asset Pricing Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198716457, Decembrie.
    4. Suresh M. Sundaresan, 2000. "Continuous‐Time Methods in Finance: A Review and an Assessment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1569-1622, August.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5374 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Merton, Robert C., 1993. "On the microeconomic theory of investment under uncertainty," Handbook of Mathematical Economics, in: K. J. Arrow & M.D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Mathematical Economics, edition 4, volume 2, chapter 13, pages 601-669, Elsevier.
    7. Yuan Hu & W. Brent Lindquist & Svetlozar T. Rachev & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2023. "Option pricing using a skew random walk pricing tree," Papers 2303.17014, arXiv.org.
    8. Friedrich Hubalek & Walter Schachermayer, 2021. "Convergence of optimal expected utility for a sequence of binomial models," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1315-1331, October.
    9. Svetlozar Rachev & Stoyan Stoyanov & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2017. "Behavioral Finance Option Pricing Formulas Consistent with Rational Dynamic Asset Pricing," Papers 1710.03205, arXiv.org.
    10. Bjork, Tomas, 2009. "Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 3, number 9780199574742, Decembrie.
    11. Leisen, Dietmar P. J., 1999. "The random-time binomial model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 23(9-10), pages 1355-1386, September.
    12. Wayne King Ming Chan, 2015. "RAROC-Based Contingent Claim Valuation," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 21, July-Dece.
    13. Keith A. Lewis, 2019. "A Simple Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing," Papers 1912.01091, arXiv.org.
    14. Møller, T., 2002. "On Valuation and Risk Management at the Interface of Insurance and Finance," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 787-827, October.
    15. Alev Meral, 2019. "Comparison of various risk measures for an optimal portfolio," Papers 1912.09573, arXiv.org.
    16. Sonntag, Dominik, 2018. "Die Theorie der fairen geometrischen Rendite [The Theory of Fair Geometric Returns]," MPRA Paper 87082, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Li, Minqiang, 2010. "Asset Pricing - A Brief Review," MPRA Paper 22379, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Carl Chiarella & Xue-Zhong He & Christina Sklibosios Nikitopoulos, 2015. "Derivative Security Pricing," Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-662-45906-5, July-Dece.
    19. Carlos Andrés Zapata Quimbayo, 2020. "OPCIONES REALES Una guía teórico-práctica para la valoración de inversiones bajo incertidumbre mediante modelos en tiempo discreto y simulación de Monte Carlo," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Finanzas, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales, number 138, April.
    20. Robert A. Jarrow, 2009. "The Term Structure of Interest Rates," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 69-96, November.
    21. Mark Broadie & Jerome B. Detemple, 2004. "ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE: Option Pricing: Valuation Models and Applications," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(9), pages 1145-1177, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:131:y:2015:i:1:p:43-67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.