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It is widely believed by economists and non-economists alike that knowing about and ‘doing’ economics does not involve ethical or moral issues. The typical introductory economics textbook starts with simplified statements about economics being value-free and ethically-neutral. But this is not correct and students need to be introduced to economics differently. This paper makes the case for a more explicit and integrated treatment of ethics in our undergraduate economics programs. The argument has two parts. First, economics and ethics are interrelated because both economists and economic actors hold ethical values that shape their behavior. Second, economic institutions and policies impact people differentially so that ethical evaluations, in addition to economic evaluations, are important. Rather than pretend that economics is value-neutral, our programs must show how these effects can be understood so that more effective economists are graduated from our universities.
Charles K. Wilber (2024) studied this question.