Ethics and cultural assimilation in financial services
We introduce ethical agents into an analysis of decision making in a profit-maximising firm. Agents can adopt a profitable new practice that may harm customers. Their decision reflects moral considerations, organisational culture, and compensation contracts. We analyse both utilitarian and deontological (duty-based) philosophical traditions. Cultural assimilation emerges as an equilibrium phenomenon. With sophisticated customers, the principal enables a culture that achieves the highest possible aggregate surplus and, under deontological ethics, both the principal and the customers would prefer to deal with less ethically committed agents. In contrast, the principal designs compensation to enable cultures that exploit na¨ıve customers.
Date:
10 October 2016, 17:00 (Monday, 1st week, Michaelmas 2016)
Venue:
St Antony's College - North Site
Venue Details:
Seminar Room, European Studies Centre, 70 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HR
Speakers:
Alan Morrison (Saïd Business School),
John Thanassoulis (Oxford-Man Institute, University of Oxford)
Organising department:
European Studies Centre
Organiser:
Julie Adams (St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Hosts:
David Vines (Balliol College, University of Oxford),
Adam Bennett (St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Part of:
Political Economy of Financial Markets Programme
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Julie Adams
