When Market Incentives Undermine Morality
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June 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Greek philosophers were notentirely wrong about markets. When they reward cooperation,people become more obliging and virtuous -- but markets don’talways reward it. Though on balance they have greatly improvedour moral behavior, they can also degrade it.
Cases of cheating go back beyond Uruk, and in our time wehave witnessed extraordinary frauds such as Enron. Let’s look ata small-scale example to show how it can work.