Voting with the wallet

Leonardo Becchetti

International Review of Economics, 2012, vol. 59, issue 3, 245-268

Abstract: The vote with the wallet is a new, emerging feature of economic participation and democracy in the globally integrated market economy. This expression identifies the pivotal role that responsible consumption and investment can play in addressing social and environmental emergencies which have been aggravated by the asymmetry of power between domestic institutions and global corporations. In this paper, we examine (both in general and by using examples drawn from the financial and non-financial sectors) how “voting” for producers which are at the forefront of a three-sided efficiency which reconciles the creation of economic value with social and environmental responsibility may generate contagion effects by triggering ethical imitation of traditional profit-maximizing actors, thereby enhancing the production of positive social and environmental externalities. Within this new framework, policies that reduce the search and information costs of voting with the wallet may help socioeconomic systems to exploit the bottom-up market forces of other-regarding preferences, thereby enhancing opportunities to achieve well-being with reduced top-down government intervention. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2012

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Other-regarding preferences; Fair trade; Ethical finance; A13; I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Working Paper: Voting with the Wallet (2011)
Working Paper: Voting with the Wallet (2011)
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DOI: 10.1007/s12232-012-0166-9

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