The Moral Grammar of Economics: An Empirical and Mathematical Framework for Jesuit-Inspired Social Justice

Luis-Felipe Arizmendi

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In the contemporary world, disparities in income and wealth remain a persistent social and human concern, appearing to worsen with the imminent disruption of Artificial Intelligence and the potential displacement of labor. This paper develops a mathematical framework in which Jesuit-inspired principles—derived from Loyola (1548), Taparelli (1840), Arrupe (1973), and Francis (2015)—are translated into operational economic rules. We formalize concepts such as the Magis, human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity into binding feasibility constraints (Stone-Geary utility), inequality-averse welfare functions, and multi-level optimization architectures. Rather than proposing a religious economic system, the framework extends normative welfare economics within open market economies, dialoguing with modern institutional theory and market design. We present an empirical validation using a balanced panel of 172 countries (1963–2024), demonstrating that unconstrained market equilibria systematically violate the conditions for social sustainability. Specifically, we find that the “Solidarity Wedge” (state correction) is inelastic to market inequality (β ≈ 0.66), and that violations of subsidiarity (regional imbalances) statistically exacerbate national poverty

Keywords: social welfare function; inequality aversion; subsidiarity; institutional economics; integral ecology; Jesuit social thought; market economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A23 A31 B0 C00 D63 P16 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03-07
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