Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T23:23:43.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Efficacité et moralité. Une analyse économique des conventions morales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Louis Corriveau
Affiliation:
PRIME, Université d'Ottawa

Abstract

We expound an economic explanation of the nature, causes, and effects of moral conventions. We show, first, that systems of moral rules lead to Pareto-efficiency; second, that the efficiency they induce may be interpreted as the outcome of an exchange of courtesies; third, and finally, that moral exchange takes place whenever the costs of transaction are sufficiently low. We also explain various phenomena, including the diversity of moral rules in time and space. Finally, we give sufficient conditions for universal moral rules to emerge in a sequence of agreements involving two agents only at a time.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Références bibliographiques

Akerlof, George 1983 «Loyalty Filters», American Economic Review, vol. 73, no1, p. 5463.Google Scholar
Binmore, Ken 1994 Game Theory and the Social Contract, vol. 1: Playing Fair, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James 1975 The Limits of Liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Coase, Ronald 1960 «The Problem of Social Cost», reproduit dans The Firm, the Market and the Law, chapitre 5, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1988, p. 95156.Google Scholar
Debreu, Gérard 1959 Theory of Value, New Haven, Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Edgeworth, Francis-Ysidro 1881 Mathematical Psychics, Londres, Kegan Paul (reproduction en fac-similé, New York, Augustus M. Kelley, 1967).Google Scholar
Frank, Robert 1987 «If Homo Œconomicus Could Choose His Own Utility Function, Would He Want One with a Conscience?», American Economic Review, vol. 77, no4, p. 593604.Google Scholar
Frank, Robert, Gilovich, Thomas et Regan, Dennis 1993 «Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?», Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 7, no2, p. 159171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, James 1971 «A Non-Cooperative Equilibrium for Supergames», Review of Economic Studies, vol. 38, no113, p. 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudenberg, Drew et Tirole, Jean 1991 Game Theory, Cambrige, MA, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gauthier, David 1986 Morals by Agreement, Oxford, Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich August von 1973–76–79 Law, Legislation and Liberty, 3 vol., trad, franc. Droit, législation et liberté, Paris, PUF, 1980, 1981, 1983.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Elizabeth et Spitzer, Matthew 1982 «The Coase Theorem: Some Experimental Tests», Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 25, no1, p. 9398.Google Scholar
Jean-Paul, II 1993 La splendeur de la vérité. Lettre encyclique du souverain pontife sur quelques questions fondamentales de l'enseignement moral de l'Église, Montréal, Éd. Paulines.Google Scholar
Kolm, Serge-Christophe 1985 Le contrat social libéral, Paris, PUF.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laffont, Jean-Jacques 1988 Fondements de l'economiepublique, 2C ed., Paris, Economica.Google Scholar
Menger, Carl 1883 Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics, traduit de l'allemand, New York, New York University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert 1974 Anarchy, State, and Utopia, New York, Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rawls, John 1971 A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shubik, Martin 1982 Game Theory in the Social Sciences: Concepts and Solutions, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Shubik, Martin 1984 A Game-Theoretic Approach to Political Economy, Cambridge MA, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam 1776 The Wealth of Nations, 2 vol., trad, franç. La richesse des nations, Paris, Flammarion (GF-Flammarion), 1991.Google Scholar
Van Parijs, Philippe 1991 Qu'est-ce qu'une societe juste?, Paris, Éd. du Seuil.CrossRefGoogle Scholar