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The Morality of Markets

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  • Mathias Dewatripont
  • Jean Tirole

Abstract

Scholars and civil society have argued that competition erodes supplier morality. This paper establishes a robust irrelevance result, whereby intense market competition does not crowd out consequentialist ethics; it thereby issues a strong warning against the wholesale moral condemnation of markets and pro-competitive institutions. Intense competition, while not altering the behavior of profitable suppliers, however may reduce the standards of highly ethical suppliers or not-for-profits, raising the potential need to protect the latter in the marketplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathias Dewatripont & Jean Tirole, 2023. "The Morality of Markets," Working Papers ECARES 2023-23, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/365277
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      • Martin Dufwenberg & Olof Johansson Stenman & Michael Kirchler & Florian Lindner & Rene Schwaiger, 2021. "Mean Markets or Kind Commerce?," Working Papers 2021-07, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    2. Byambadalai, Undral & Ma, Ching-to Albert & Wiesen, Daniel, 2023. "Changing preferences: An experiment and estimation of market-incentive effects on altruism," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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    Keywords

    Competition; consequentialism; replacement logic; non-profits; corporate social responsability; race to the ethical bottom;
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