Irene van Staveren and Des Gasper publish in Oxford Handbook of Professional Economic Ethics

Oxford Handbook of Professional Economic Ethics (edited by George F. DeMartino and Deirdre N. McCloskey, Oxford University Press, 2016), brings together 36 essays that give detailed attention to ethical issues involved in economics practice, the ethical consequences of choices in theorizing and in the treatment of risk and uncertainty, ethical issues in various areas of economics research and of applied economics, and to ethics in economics education and the possible design and use of codes of ethics.

Des Gasper is Professor of Human Development, Development Ethics and Public Policy at ISS. His chapter deals with ‘The Ethics of Economic Development and Human Displacement’.

The chapter by Irene van Staveren is on ‘Alternative Ethical Perspectives on the Financial Crisis: Lessons for Economists’. Irene is Professor of Pluralist Development Economics at ISS.

About the Handbook

The Handbook is the first ever in-depth survey of an area that has long been shied away from in the economics discipline. Economic analysis is enormously present and influential in the decision-making of governments, international organizations and businesses, yet in contrast to almost every other field of professional practice and research (medicine, engineering, anthropology, psychotherapy, sociology, social work, urban planning, etc.) it has had little in the way of ethical codes of practice, sets of ethical guidelines and systematic ethics training and reflection. 

The contributors include, amongst others, Herman Daly, John B. Davis, Sheila Dow, Robert H. Frank, Ravi Kanbur, Arjo Klamer, Thomas Mayer, Julie Nelson, Robert H. Nelson, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Martin Ravallion, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Wade.