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The Morality of Economic Man

The paper on “The Morality of Economic Man” by Laszlo Zsolnai was published in European Business Review (2004. No. 4, pp. 449–454).

Laszlo Zsolnai argues that economic behavior is multifaceted and context-dependent. Economic behavior is codetermined by utility calculations and moral considerations. Two major factors can explain the ethicality of economic behavior; namely, the moral character of the agents and the relative cost of ethical behavior. Economic agents are moral beings, but the ethical fabric of the economy determines which face of the Moral Economic Man predominates. Collective belief in the ethical norms, pro-socialness of agents, high cost of transgression, as well as transparency and accountability, are all major conditions for the proper functioning of the Moral Economic Man.

The full paper can be seen here https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ebr.2004.05416dab.004/full/html