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  • Why good incentives crowd out ethics

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    María Alejandra Lozano
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    Samuel Bowles argues that good citizens and moral behavior are more important for economic and policy success than good incentives alone. He believes that the common assumption that people are purely self-interested, known as "economic man," is flawed and that policies designed with this in mind may undermine ethical behavior and backfire. Drawing on new research from economics and psychology, as well as examples of both effective and failed policies, Bowles advocates for an approach that recognizes people's civic motivations and shows how incentives can support rather than weaken such motivations which good governance relies on.

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    Why incentives...

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    Sayer Moral Economy

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    Samuel Bowles argues that good citizens and moral behavior are more important for economic and policy success than good incentives alone. He believes that the common assumption that people are purely self-interested, known as "economic man," is flawed and that policies designed with this in mind may undermine ethical behavior and backfire. Drawing on new research from economics and psychology, as well as examples of both effective and failed policies, Bowles advocates for an approach that recognizes people's civic motivations and shows how incentives can support rather than weaken such motivations which good governance relies on.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    26 views1 page

    Why good incentives crowd out ethics

    Uploaded by

    María Alejandra Lozano
    Samuel Bowles argues that good citizens and moral behavior are more important for economic and policy success than good incentives alone. He believes that the common assumption that people are purely self-interested, known as "economic man," is flawed and that policies designed with this in mind may undermine ethical behavior and backfire. Drawing on new research from economics and psychology, as well as examples of both effective and failed policies, Bowles advocates for an approach that recognizes people's civic motivations and shows how incentives can support rather than weaken such motivations which good governance relies on.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Incorporated by

    Royal Charter

    The Moral Economy:


    Why good incentives are no substitute
    for good citizens

    Samuel Bowles, Santa Fe Institute


    Why do policies and business practices that ignore
    the moral and generous side of human nature often
    fail?

    Should the idea of economic man—the amoral and


    self interested Homo economicus—determine how
    we expect people to respond to monetary rewards,
    punishments and other incentives? Samuel Bowles
    answers with a resounding “no.” Policies that follow
    from this paradigm, he shows, may “crowd out” ethical
    and generous motives and thus backfire. Drawing on
    new research in economics and psychology and the
    experience of both failed and successful public policies,
    Professor Bowles advocates an alternative approach
    and shows how well-designed incentives can crowd in
    the civic motives on which good governance depends.

    Samuel Bowles directs the Behavioral Sciences


    Program at the Santa Fe Institute. Professor Bowles
    is one of the world’s leading intellectual authorities
    on the study of social norms, cooperation and
    conflict, and inequality and redistribution. He has
    taught economics at Harvard, the University of
    Massachusetts and the University of Siena and is the
    author of Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and 29 May 2018 5:00 PM
    Evolution and (with Herbert Gintis) A Cooperative
    Species: Human Reciprocity and its Evolution. Oxford Centre
    for Islamic Studies
    Marston Road
    Apply for tickets here
    Oxford OX3 0EE

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