“Objective Values, No Values and Subjective Values. The Ethical Bases of Market and State”, dicembre 2006.

The conference was a partnership between the European Center for the Study of Public Choice (ECSPC) and the Research Centre for International Economics (CIDEI). In a pre-conference ceremony, Nobel laureate Professor James M. Buchanan, who was keynote speaker at the conference, was awarded the centennial medal and a parchment in recognition of his outstanding achievements and a fifty-year effort to inject into English-language fiscal theory insights central to the Italian School of Public Finance. Drawing together key actors working on the relationship between ethics and economics, the conference was officially opened by Attilio Celant, Dean of the Faculty of Economics. In his introductory speech, Giuseppe Eusepi addressed a note of appreciation to Professor Buchanan for giving all those who work in the vineyard of public choice the pleasure to share his company and benefit of his wisdom. The conference opened with a keynote speech by James M. Buchanan concerned with “Ethics and the Extent of the Market”. Buchanan focused on the notion of generalised increasing returns and clinched the pivotal role that they play in Adam Smith’s account of the operation of the market. Buchanan drew a sharp distinction between the notion of increasing returns to scale within a specific firm (a pin factory, for example) and the generalised increasing returns that operate across the entire market system. His presentation revolved around the ethical value that is embodied in a market governed by constitutional rules. It then followed a paper by Ferruccio Marzano entitled "Ethical Premises in Economics and Finance". Much of Marzano’s presentation dealt with Godel’s incompleteness theorems. Marina Brogi commented on the paper. The third paper, “Values, Interests and Justice. The Philosophical Background and Social Role of Secular Ethics” was delivered by Stefano Gorini. He enquired on the theoretical, ethical and social implications of the adoption of critical rationalism as a method to understand the world. His reasoning revolved around four connected claims. The first claim equated the distinction between morality and economics with the distinction between values and interests. The second claim related the theoretical foundations of critical rationalism - a secular world-view - to the ethical foundations of that method. The third claim highlighted the crucial civic role of the associated secular ethics, as compared with the non-secular moral positions of religion and ideology, and underlined the secular ethics of wellbeing, social success, and power. The fourth claim distinguished morals from social justice. Bruno S. Frey discussed the paper. On Saturday, December 16, the second session started with a paper by Marcello Basili and Maurizio Franzini entitled “Cooperation, Reciprocity and Self-Esteem: A Theoretical Approach”. Franzini suggested that cooperation often occurs, even though it is not predicted by economic theory, owing to what is widely recognized as too narrow a conception of self-interest. He presented a model of interaction between utility maximization and moral values based upon the notion of self-esteem. Moving from a principal-agent setting, he highlighted how the notion of reciprocity relates to self-esteem and that of self-esteem to fairness. Self-esteem was analyzed in a setting characterized by moral hazard and adverse selection in order to estimate its influence on securing the best contract. Maurizio Pugno discussed the paper. The next paper “Value and Values, Preferences and Price: An Economic Perspective on Ethical Questions” was by Geoffrey Brennan and Giuseppe Eusepi. The paper was presented by Giuseppe Eusepi. He attempted to clarify the relation between economic and ethical accounts of social phenomena by appeal to a distinction between ‘economic value’ and ‘ethical values’. Beginning with Ricardo’s concerns about the concept of value, and specifically Ricardo’s ambition to secure the “objectification” of value, Eusepi highlighted the ambiguities inherent in the Ricardian treatment of the value-price nexus. He emphasised the double duty that the term ‘value’ does in the analysis of price determination – first, as an element in the agent’s motivational structure (the agent’s “values” as distinct from the agent’s “preferences”); and second, as the outcome of social processes, in which the “value” of different goods and services emerges from the process itself. Yong J. Yoon offered his comments. It followed a paper by Luisa Giuriato entitled “Just Taxation and the Principle of Interest”. Revisiting the mid-century scholars, Vanoni and Berliri, Luisa Giuriato gave an account of the debate on just taxation in Italy during the period of constitution-making (1945-1948) leading up to, the 1951 tax reform. She focused on the essence of these two scholars’ work showing that Vanoni used the principle of interest to lay down his principles of ethical taxation and Berliri to solve the problem of sharing the benefits of indivisible public expenditures among taxpayers. She concluded that although their contributions are essentially normative and are of little help in dealing with operational questions, they deserve attention for their usefulness in rethinking the fiscal relationship between citizens and the State. Alessandra Cepparulo discussed the paper. Bruno S. Frey closed the conference with a paper jointly written with Susanne Neckermann entitled “Giving and receiving Awards”. He developed an argument about the dynamics of awards in terms of orders, decorations, prizes, and titles. He argued that this kind of non-material extrinsic incentive is not much studied in social sciences. He based his argumentation on the assumption that the demand for awards has to be interpreted as an individual’s desire for distinction, and the supply of awards as a mechanism for enhancing motivation. He concentrated on the differences between awards and monetary compensations and offered a comparative analysis of the usage of awards around the world. Marilena Giannetti commented on the paper. Giuseppe Eusepi closed the conference by thanking the speakers for their scholarly papers, the discussants, the chairmen and all those who took part in the spirited discussion. He then extended his thanks to everyone at the ECSPC who assisted in the organization of the conference. A heart-felt thank you went to Maria Delle Grotti for the fantastic job she did coordinating all the activities that led to a successful conference and to Alessandra Cepparulo for designing the ECSPC conference page. Finally, he expressed his gratitude to the Faculty of Economics, the Department of Public Economics, Open House and Gruppo Bancario BancApulia for their generous financial support.