In search of a market morality for making real the “Community of Advantage”: a note on Sugden’s “Principle of Mutual Benefit”

Benedetto Gui ()
Additional contact information
Benedetto Gui: Sophia University Institute, Loppiano

International Review of Economics, 2021, vol. 68, issue 1, No 9, 140 pages

Abstract: Abstract In this note I discuss Robert Sugden’s original proposal of a market morality of mutual benefit, thoroughly expounded in his recent Community of Advantage. He envisions that jointly aiming at the benefit of all the parties in a transaction—a motivation different from both self-interest and altruism—can really make the market beneficial for everyone. Yet, such intention may not suffice when the transaction entails considerable negative externalities and these are not remedied by government regulation or intervention, or else when markets are not atomistic and some participants are rationed. So I observe that a morality of mutual benefit among transactors should be complemented by another constraint: not to cause significant undue damages to third parties. While recognizing that general adoption of a morality of mutual benefit would be a momentous step forward, in the end I suggest that the gravity of global problems call for walking some steps even beyond mutual benefit.

Keywords: Market morality; Mutual benefit; Market imperfections; Externalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D60 D62 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12232-021-00365-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:68:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s12232-021-00365-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cy/journal/12232/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s12232-021-00365-1

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics is currently edited by Luigino Bruni

More articles in International Review of Economics from Springer, Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().