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Abstract

This paper attempts to answer two important questions in economics. First, what virtues are important for promoting economic progress? Second, what is the source of these virtues? To answer these questions, I rely on recent studies suggesting that the virtues of trust, tolerance and respect, individual determination, and obedience are important for understanding how civil society supports prosperity. Specifically, trust, respect, and individual motivation, encourage and support economic freedom, whereas obedience can hinder economic advancement. I also explore competing explanations for the determinants of virtues including religion, the role of government, and the act of economic exchange for civilizing society. My analysis finds support for the latter source.

Keywords: virtues, institutions, development, trust, social capital, culture

1. Introduction

The link between economic institutions, such as well-defined and secure property rights and the rule of law, and economic development is well documented in the literature (Montesquieu 1748; Smith 1776; Demsetz 1967; Hayek 1960; Bauer 2000, North 1990, 2005; Keefer and Knack 1997; Rodrik, Subramanian, and Trebbi 2004; Acemoglu and Johnson 2005). North (1990, 2005) argues that institutions provide the rules of the game that structure political, economic, and social interaction. These constraints provide the incentives and information to facilitate production and exchange, investment, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship that is necessary for economic development. The empirical research supports this positive causal relationship between the institutions supporting economic freedom and prosperity (Gwartney, Lawson, and Holcombe 1999; Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2001, 2002; Cole 2003). Rodrik, Subramanian, and Trebbi (2004) summarize this robust finding as ‘Institutions Rule.’

More recently, economists are pinpointing specific institutions that are important for economic development. An outgrowth of this research is to separate institutions into their formal (government provided and enforced) and their informal (privately provided and enforced) components. An emerging result supports the importance of informal constraints in promoting economic development through its effectiveness in defining and enforcing rules that promote secure property rights, exchange, and the observance of contracts (Anderson and Hill 1979; Benson 1989a, 1989b; Greif 1993; Greif, Milgrom, and Weingast 1994; Nenova and Hartford 2004; Acemoglu and Johnson 2005; Leeson 2007a, 2007b; Tabellini 2007; Williamson 2009). These constraints stem from social norms, culture, customs, and traditions. Thus, a society’s virtues are at the core of any institutional arrangement and the subsequent incentive and information structure that is formed to guide social and economic behavior.

This paper attempts to understand more specifically the influence that virtues exhibit on economic development. My conjecture is that virtues promote social cooperation by reducing transaction costs and the costs of monitoring, generating commonalities and focal points, and creating broad rules to guide behavior leading to more economic exchange and production, higher investment, and more entrepreneurship. These interactions form the core or ‘institutional glue’ necessary for the economic institutions supporting a free and prosperous society to be effective[1]. My approach is twofold. I focus on addressing two important questions. First, which virtues promote economic freedom and development? Secondly, can we identify determinants of these specific virtues? To answer these questions, I rely on analysis provided in the economics literature including theoretical, conceptual, and empirical studies. My analysis is a natural extension of the institutional literature and centers on understanding how virtues help to form the necessary constraints that promote economic freedom and development.

Instead of focusing on more traditional virtues such as justice, prudence, and love (see McCloskey 2006) my analysis centers on virtues that are identified in the literature as more relevant for supporting economic exchange and production, entrepreneurial activities, and the provision of public goods. The first three; trust, respect, and individual motivation, are expected to encourage and support market activity and exchange favoring economic development. The fourth virtue, obedience, can create an environment where individuals are less likely to engage in innovative, entrepreneurial activities hindering economic advancement.

Section 2 provides an overview of each virtue in detail explaining how these virtues affect and promote economic exchange and production and thus providing the foundation for freedom. Section 3 explores the second question and attempts to explain possible sources of values, beliefs, and culture. This section addresses several possible explanations in the current literature with particular emphasis on two main sources. Formal institutions and government behavior could determine and affect a society’s virtues. One argument is that in the absence of a virtuous society government may be necessary to fill in the void. A second explanation is that government may be the source of the absence. I explore each in detail, finding support for the second argument. In addition, I investigate an alternative hypothesis where engaging in market activity, i.e. trade, may enhance and nurture our virtues. Section 4 concludes with the implications of the analysis.

2. The Four Virtues

Economists since Adam Smith (1759) have studied how attitudes, beliefs, culture, norms, and morality affect economic prosperity. We have a general understanding that virtues are important for supporting social cooperation but pinpointing which ones matter and how they matter has been more elusive. My conjecture is that virtues are important because they promote economic freedom and the supporting institutions that in turn promote economic development. This section attempts to specify which virtues are identified as serving this role.

Currently, the most general attempt to provide an analysis on which virtues are important is found by the recent work on culture and development (Barro and McCleary 2003; Licht, Goldschmidt and Schwartz 2004; Pejovich 2004; Francois, Patrick and Jan Zabojnik 2005; Jones 2006; Tabellini 2007, 2008; Shirley 2008). This work focuses on how different cultural characteristics determine the performance of a society by framing the perceptions of individuals regarding opportunities and alternatives (North 2005). Guiso et al. (2006: 23) defines culture as “ . . . those customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious, and social groups transmit fairly unchanged from generation to generation.” Starting from this general definition, the literature has focused on several specific indicators, including values, beliefs, trust and respect for others, which are relevant to social and economic interaction.

Drawing from several bodies of literature, I identify four main virtues as being the most important for forming the core of any society’s institutional structure that guide economic activities[2]. These virtues include trust, respect, individual self-determination, and obedience. Trust, respect, and individual self-determination encourage social and economic exchange as well as production and entrepreneurship. Obedience negatively impacts economic development by hindering risk taking entrepreneurial activities. Building from this work, trust, respect, individual self-determination, and obedience are four important virtues to be assessed. I provide supporting theoretical and empirical evidence below.

2.2. Trust

The virtue of trust and its function in a market economy is highlighted by Smith (1759). Smith argues that trust is one of the most important virtues needed to sustain a vibrant exchange economy. Trust and reciprocity are a significant foundation for the roots of any market exchange. Through the process of joint exchange, trade relationships emerge. The process of trade can continue because of the trust relationship established. This relationship promotes increased interaction leading to a further extent of the market. Thus, the Smithian gains from trade are born. Smith also argues that as an economy continues to develop it markets, trustworthiness will become even more important to sustain and promote economic exchange.

Klein (2000) defines trust as a confidence that an individual who makes an agreement will follow through with the terms of the promise. Therefore, all economic activities that require some future involvement will need an element of trust. In fact, it can be argued that every commercial transaction involves some level of trust. Individuals with higher trust societies spend less time diverting resources to protect themselves to avoid being exploited and more time engaging in productive activities. In other words, trust reduces the transactions costs of engaging in market exchange leading to increased market production and more efficient outcomes (Dixit 2004). A lack of trust between individuals creates additional barriers to economic interaction resulting in individuals trading among small networks rather than expanding into anonymous market participation. This discourages innovation, entrepreneurship, and investments in both human and physical capital.

The literature on social capital also highlights the important role that trust can play in encouraging social cooperation. Specifically, the level of trust raises or lowers the productivity of a society’s institutions (Coleman 1988; Putnam 1993; and Fukuyama 1996). According to Coleman (1988), social capital is a key productive ingredient for the achievement of certain goals that otherwise would not be attainable. Jacobs (1961) argues that informal networks present in thriving cities depend on a level of trust and reciprocity between traders, shop owners, and the consumers. It is these networks that ultimately create and sustain a successful city. Trust is also needed in situations where interactions are infrequent. This includes settings like local governments’ provision of public goods, university administration, government bureaucracies, or any large scale organization (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, Vishny 1997).

In higher trust societies, individuals do not need to rely as much on formal institutions to enforce contracts and agreements. This becomes especially important in countries without access to formal legal enforcement mechanisms. By reducing the cost of monitoring and lowering transactions costs, trust can encourage secure property rights (Williamson and Kerekes 2009). Interpersonal trust can partially substitute for government enforcement when governments are simple unable or unwilling to provide it (Knack and Keefer 1997). In addition to possibly substituting for government, social capital may also improve the performance of government by providing additional checks on government self-interest (Putnam 1993).

The role of trust in the empirical literature has become increasingly more important in explaining difference in cross country performance (Knack and Keefer 1997; Woolcock 1998; Francois and Zabojnik 2005; Chan 2007). The existence and evolution of social networks and trust is largely a determinant in a country’s growth rate and their standard of living. Also, trust is shown to promote secure property rights, increase investment, and entrepreneurship. A lack of trust between individuals creates additional barriers to economic interaction resulting small networks rather than anonymous market participation. When individuals do not expand market activity, we do not realize Smith’s gains from specialization under the division of labor. In summary, the literature suggests that trust promotes social cooperation and encourages more exchange relationships which translates into higher levels of economic development and growth.

2.3. Individual Self-Determination

Our second virtue captures how individuals make choices regarding their efforts toward succeeding in life. If a person is highly self-motivated then fewer rules are required to persuade that person to better their economic welfare. However, the more ‘lazy’ a person becomes, it may be necessary to require a different set of rules to motivate that person. This implies that self-determination cannot be assessed without understanding the context behind the choices (section 3 discusses this in more detail below). According to Smith, every individual possess “the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange.” This natural propensity will determine the extent of economic production and exchange. However, how hard individuals choose to best apply their efforts depends on the return from engaging in certain activities. If it is more profitable to seek opportunities in the marketplace, then individuals will do so promoting economic advancement. Conversely, if individuals view success as a result of external events, they are more likely to have a passive, resigned and lazy attitude towards economic activity[3]. Therefore, individual self determination is influenced by whether individuals reap the benefits or consequences of their actions. This in large part will depend on the institutional environment in which the individual exists[4].

Individual determination depends on the perception of how actual effort translates into actual success. Individual drive depends on the level of self control individuals believe they have over their life choices. An extension of this argument is that individual choice depends on how much control you feel you have over your life. When individuals think that they have control over their life, they will be more likely to find ways that improve their welfare. The more likely an individual views economic success as being determined one’s own will, the more likely these individuals will engage in productive, future oriented activities. These activities include things like hard work, investment in human capital, and undertaking entrepreneurial actions. However, if individuals view the likelihood of succeeding as a product of luck or political connections, they will tend to not engage in productive economic and social activities. Instead, they may choose to channel their activities toward unproductive activities such as rent seeking. This attitude towards economic activity will surely impact economic development in a country (Banfield 1958).

A direct application of this argument can be found in Baumol (1990). He hypothesizes that individuals channel their effort in different directions depending on the type of existing legal, economic, and political institutions. This institutional environment determines the relative payoff to investing in either market, wealth-creating activities or investing entrepreneurial energies into wealth redistribution through unproductive political and legal activities. The incentives provided by the prevailing institutions will determine how individuals pursue entrepreneurship and whether these activities will support high rates of economic growth[5].

2.4. Respect

The third virtue, defined as tolerance and respect, distinguishes between generalized versus limited morality. According to Platteau (2000), in hierarchical societies, honesty and norms promoting good conduct are often confined to small networks such as family members or tribal members. It is morally acceptable to engage in highly opportunistic and dishonest behavior outside of the group. Banfield (1958) discovered that in a rural Italian village the principle of good versus evil applied to members within the family only. Principles regarding moral behavior do not apply to outside members. Other societies may develop abstract rules to guide social interactions in a generalized sense in order to promote morality among anonymous members of society. These two distinct types of morality have economic consequences or benefits including the provision of public goods in a local community and the monitoring of political representatives (Banfied 1958; Putnam 1993).

The notion of respect is connected to the concept of trust discussed above. In societies with relatively high levels of social capital, individuals will be more trusting of others who are outside their direct kin and friendship networks. Abstract rules facilitating cooperation among friends and strangers may emerge, increasing the extent of social networks and the market. In contrast, in societies with lower levels of social capital, and hence lower levels of respect, the extent of the market will be limited to close kin and friendship networks. Rules which facilitate the extent of social networks and markets will fail to emerge.

A relevant implication of generalized versus limited morality is that more respectful societies will find it easier to enforce contracts and secure property rights without relying on formal legal enforcement. Thus, individuals will find it more profitable to engage in widespread market exchange and production even when government legal institutions are lacking. Also, more respect can lead to individuals being less likely to free ride off other members within their community. This can help to provide many key public goods such as participation in political activities (Putnam 2000), the provision of roads (Klein 2000), and the monitoring political representatives (Banfield 1958). If individuals lack respect for other members of their community, highly opportunistic behavior will be likely, property rights will be insecure, and public good provision will be inadequate leading to lower levels of economic development.

2.5. Obedience

The fourth and final virtue captures the importance of obedience in a society. This attitude distinguishes between primarily promoting the individual or whether promoting the collective is more significant. Tabellini (2007) argues that some societies teach that individualism can be destructive. This translates into either the state or the parental unit suppressing individual instincts in children. The economic psychology literature indicates that parents play a key role in influencing their children’s locus of control and perception of autonomy which directly influences their likelihood of being entrepreneurial as they grow older (see Harper 2003: 54–55). Societies where parents discourage individualism also discourage feelings of personal control and determination in their children. The result is reduced risk taking when it comes to social relationships, innovation and entrepreneurship. This has adverse effects on social and economic development.

A similar argument can be found in Hofstede (2001), where he defines one of five dimensions of culture as individualism versus collectivism. This aspect of culture defines the relationship between the individual and the collectivity that exists within a society. In some societies, individualism is promoted and seen as beneficial whereas in other groups focusing on the individual is seen as selfish and alienating. More traditional societies with a strong hierarchal religious following are more likely to promote the collective over the individual. This relationship not only matters for the way that groups live together, but also affects people’s attitudes, the functioning of institutions, and the structure of social and economic interactions. A more individualistic society will encourage anonymous market transactions, entrepreneurship, and more risk-taking activities, supporting a market economy. However, societies that promote the whole over the individual may suppress social and economic interactions that would be beneficial to the advancement of the group. Empirically, Hofstede verifies that countries with a higher individualism score outperform countries with a higher collectivism score.

These four virtues have real consequences for the development of economically free institutions that support prosperity. The first three virtues; trust, individual determination, and respect all promote and encourage activities such as widespread trade, investment in human and physical capital, and innovation, which support economic development. Our fourth virtue, obedience, or collectivism, hinders the individual from expanding beyond the group and prevents beneficial transactions. These relationships are verified by Tabellini (2007). Utilizing data from the World Values Surveys to identify a corresponding question for each component discussed above, he combines all four traits into one index for each country[6]. Tabellini finds that this index displays a strong positive and significant relationship on economic development. In cross country comparison, a higher index (high levels trust, respect, and determination and low levels of obedience) leads to higher levels of income. His analysis concludes that formally arranged institutions may not be the most important factor for growth because of the role played by these attributes[7]. This supports the argument that the virtues of trust, respect, and individual self determination (and a lack of obedience) are important in providing the foundation for a market economy[8].

3. Promoting a Virtuous Society

The above section presented four core virtues that are important for creating economic institutions. The next logical step is to ask what promotes and determines these virtues. Recent attempts are made to try and understand what influences culture, values, trust, and social capital. This section summarizes these studies, focusing on two particular themes in the literature. First, what role does the government serve in directing our virtues? Secondly, I focus on how markets affect our virtues with particular emphasis on the role of trade.

Our virtues may not be truly exogenous. Putnam (1993) argues that trust is formed from an extended period of building relationships from commercial and civic activities. These associations are influenced by the type of structures imposed on society. For example, he states that the Catholic Church imposes a hierarchical structure that discourages trust formation. This can be generally applied to all four of our virtues where a hierarchical religion may discourage trust, respect, and individual determination, while promoting obedience[9]. La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, and Vishny (1997) empirically find that trust is lower in countries with dominant hierarchical religions. This argument is similar to Weber’s (1905) thesis. According to Weber, Calvinism (Protestantism) induced individuals to engage in hard work, market exchange, and wealth creation providing the foundation to capitalism. Empirically, his thesis is supported by Grier (1997) who confirms the positive effect of Protestantism on economic performance.

Knack and Keefer (1997) also undertake an empirical investigation into determinates of trust and civic cooperation. They test the effects of group memberships, polarization and inequality, formal institutions, income levels, and education rates. Their results find a positive and significant effect on trust from both income levels and educational attainment. Putnam’s group membership does not display a significant effect on the level of trust, whereas income inequality does contribute to lower levels of trust and norms. As ethnic homogeneity increases, so does the level of trust within a country. The formal measure of institutions, Polity IV’s Constraints on the Executive is positively and significantly impacting trust. This result suggests that formal institutional rules preventing arbitrary acts from the government is an important influence on a society’s morals, norms, and virtues. This last finding highlights an important area that needs further exploration: how does the government influence our virtues?

3.1. The Role of Government

The relationship between formal institutions and virtues is complex, with each influencing one another, suggesting that virtues may not be completely exogenous. This sub-section attempts to understand this relationship in more detail.

In the absence of a virtuous society, it may be necessary for government to take a more active role in creating and sustaining rules and regulations to support economic growth. The operation of a market economy depends on the ability for individuals to develop relationships built on trust. In order for people to enter into contracts and engage in exchange, some element of trust must be present. However, when these virtues are not present, government may find it beneficial to establish more rules to govern our lives.

While this argument may seem plausible on the surface, a deeper analysis suggests that governments are often a source of extortion and interference rather than a productive unit providing necessary rules to promote increased market interactions. Governments do not always make decisions based on public interest, but often choose polices more in line with politician’s interests and that of special interest groups. When governments behave in such predatory behavior, individuals living under those rules may begin to alter their views, culture, and values. As such, the informal rules guiding social and economic interactions may begin to break down. For example, governments may have written formal political constraints, such as a constitutional rule preventing public expropriation of private property. However, if officials fail to actually abide by these institutional rules, different informal beliefs and customs, such as lower levels of trust among individuals, may start being adopted[10].

As a consequence, societies may become more corrupt due to government actions and regulations. For example, Garrett and Sobel (2003) illustrate how political favoritism and pressures play a significant role in government natural disaster relief efforts and financial support. In a follow-up study, Leeson and Sobel (2008) contribute part of U.S. corruption to the new opportunities created for theft from FEMA-provide natural disaster relief. This argument is a similar result emerging from the literature examining the effects of foreign aid on the government quality. Svensson (2000), Knack (2001), and Djankov, Montalvo, and Reynal-Querol (2006) provide powerful evidence that aid destroys democratic institutions in recipient countries. According to this argument, foreign aid shifts the incentives away from productive behavior to unproductive activities such as rent-seeking, political corruption, bribery, and political fighting. The result is a deterioration of democratic and economic institutions including a society’s norms, values, and culture that guide everyday interactions.

Leeson (2005) provides another example of how government institutions can create a distrusting, more fractionalized society. He explains how the imposition of formal institutions not in line with informal norms and values in pre-colonial Africa resulted in a fractionalized continent. Colonial institutions created noise in pre-established signaling devices, inhibiting widespread cooperation and eliminating any economic and cultural benefits from widespread exchange. By stifling trade between diverse groups, formal, colonial institutions caused groups to have a lower tolerance for other tribes, lowering the amount of trust and respect between groups, and contributing to Africa’s poor economic growth.

Meadowcroft and Pennington (2007) provide an explanation as to how governments may do more harm than good when trying to ‘supply’ virtues. The development of ‘bridging’ social capital requires a level of generalized trust between parties. This code of conduct will be built from a common set of morals, generating a higher level tolerance and respect for other individuals who may be very different from oneself. This emerges as a result of many social and economic interactions where individuals find it in their self-interest to figure out ways to cooperate with each other. If government attempts to step in and provide and enforce a common set of goals, this more than likely will lead to conflict and social disintegration as government typically does not have the right incentives or the necessary information to supply generalized rules. Instead of providing and enforcing abstract rules that apply to everyone, governments typically fall prey to political interests where rules targeted at specific groups and specific ends are more likely to materialize.

For example, McChesney (1990) highlights what can happen when government uses its powers to regulate specific groups. From 1887 to 1934 the U.S. government chose to allocate Indian rights to reservation land based on a large complex system that defined land inefficiently in order to maximize bureaucrats’ budgets. The beneficiary from both the process of privatization and the end of privatization was not the Indians; it was government politicians. The result of taking informal land rights and creating a formal land structure did not enhance social welfare but political welfare. The implications of such policies will more than likely have lasting effects on Indian attitudes and belief systems complicating future transactions.

In summary, the government’s attempt to provide social capital, morality, and virtues will more than likely lead to the destruction of a virtuous society instead of the creation of one. Even if a society’s virtues are not at its ‘optimal’ level, the state having the correct incentives and adequate information to fill in this gap is highly unlikely. The government’s ability to culturally plan will fail on the same grounds as economic planning. A government’s productive role in enhancing society is based on providing fundamental institutions and limiting regulations and interventions in a market economy allowing civil society to evolve on its own.

3.2. The Role of Free Trade

“The crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison, thought; superstitions cancel one another, and reason begins.”

Will Durant, The Life of Greece

Instead of emphasizing how governments can ‘culturally plan’ and build our social capital, in this section, I argue that we should focus on another avenue for positively enhancing our virtues. This avenue is one of participation in production, exchange, and trade relationships. While some critics argue that it is actually the market that erodes our morals (for example see Plant 1999), this section focuses on how engaging in market transactions increases our tolerance for others, builds trust and respect, and enhances other virtuous attributes. In addition to the gains associated with economic exchange, the exchange of ideas has the impact of shaping values, perceptions, and beliefs of those participating in these interactions. These changes in values subsequently impact the evolution of social and economic interactions. In other words, a market economy not only provides economic benefits but it actually creates a more civilized society.

Hayek argues that one of the most important components to civil society is participation in markets. The exchange order, or the catallaxy, means to bring a stranger into friendship. Through the process of exchanging, individuals learn how to communicate, cooperate, and trust one another. As the economy moves from small group interaction to one built on anonymous market participation, a society also transitions from uncivilized to a civilized society. Bauer explicitly makes this argument where the process from a subsistence economy into an exchange economy creates not only wealth enhancing opportunities but also a transformation of traditions, norms, and values[11].

Whereas Putnam views the market as undermining civil society, Hume and Smith state that commerce will be a civilizing force contributing to social cooperation. Market interactions are based on general rules that reward productive, cooperating individuals and punish those who engage in predatory behavior. Our interactions in the marketplace teach us habits and values, such as hard work and honesty. Trade not only provides economic benefits through specialization and the division of labor, but it also provides us with cultural benefits. Trade leads to new opportunities for interaction and increases the market for ideas, beliefs and values. Through market participation, individuals gain exposure to knowledge, innovation, and alternative ways of life. This allows for cultural and institutional competition, experimentation, and evolution[12].

McCloskey (2006) contends that markets and exchange nourish and cultivate individual character, virtues, and ethics for the better. Most critiques of capitalism attack it on a moral basis arguing that markets alienate us from one another and destroys the communal spirit. McCloskey argues the exact opposite. Specifically, the values created from an exchange economy not only serve as a vehicle for material progress but also as a medium for human flourishing. She explicitly argues that “participation in capitalist bourgeois virtues has civilized the world” (26). She notes that markets are frequently an “occasion for virtue, an expression of solidarity across gender, social class and ethnicity” (4). In short, capitalism is good for the soul.

In terms of the social capital literature (Meadowcroft and Pennington 2007), global expansion of markets has allowed communities that have little in common to become connected by trade, thus leading to the development of a more inclusive ‘bridging’ social capital. In addition, a market based economy can support both ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ capital further reducing transactions costs. People involved in such trading relationships must obey a set of moral rules even though they may have little in else in common.

Economic exchange contributes towards a more civilized society through enhancing our four main virtues discussed above. For example, trade provides individuals with new alternatives and opportunities. Therefore it is a way of increasing self-autonomy and “locus of control,” decreasing the level of obedience while increasing individual self-determination. The market increases the choice set facing individuals, giving them increased control over their lives and empowering individuals. A related benefit of economic exchange interactions is that integration reduces transaction and information costs. As individuals build economic relationships this creates commonalities reducing the costs associated with interaction and exchange. These reduced transaction costs lead to increased interaction, fostering trust and respect, contributing to the growth of social networks and the extent of the market. In addition, as trade networks evolve, abstract rules and expectations governing interaction and cooperation emerge. These general rules may begin to displace the insider-outsider mentality fostering a more generalized morality and increasing the level of respect.

Cowen (2002) captures the essence of this view when he notes that individuals engaged in exchange “ . . . expect those transactions to make them better off, to enrich their cultural lives, and to increase their menu of choices” (12). His claim is not that values are never eroded due to economic exchange, but rather that the process of “creative destruction” serves to have the overall effect of enhancing our attitudes, cultures, and virtues. Stated differently, economic exchange and development have real effects on a country’s culture, and on net those effects are beneficial. According to Cowen, economic exchange has both negative and positive spillovers on the non-economic aspects of a society, including values due to the exposure to new ideas, values, and beliefs. However, overall, he still views trade as a mechanism contributing to cultural enrichment[13].

In summary, in addition to increases in material wealth, access to markets and economic exchange provides individuals with the potential to foster and influence other aspects of society. As individual participate in anonymous market transactions and engage in exchange, they build relationships which in turn expose individuals to new knowledge, ideas, values, cultures, and virtues. These include trust, respect, hard work, and honesty. As a result, transactions costs are reduced, commonalities are created, and social cooperation is encouraged and sustained.

4. Concluding Remarks

The ‘Institutions Rule’ literature provides a framework for understanding how the rules of the game matter significantly for promoting economic development. In this paper, I present an argument where virtues play an important role in structuring and forming any institutional arrangement. A society’s ideas, beliefs, morals, and culture structure everyday social and economic interactions. These interactions cultivate general rules promoting social cooperation by reducing transactions costs, generating commonalities and focal points leading to more economic exchange and production, higher investment, and more entrepreneurship. Therefore, virtues provide the foundation for economic freedom and development.

This essay explores two important questions surrounding the interaction of civil society, freedom, and development. In particular, I attempt to specify particular virtues which are important for economic exchange and prosperity as well as explore potential sources of these virtues. Instead of focusing on more traditional virtues such as justice and love, my analysis centers on virtues that are more relevant for supporting economic exchange and production. Trust, respect, and individual motivation encourage and support market activity and exchange favoring economic development, whereas obedience or collectivism leads to individuals not engaging in innovative, entrepreneurial activities.

These virtues do not emerge in a black box. A society’s morals are context dependent indicating that individuals’ attitudes and beliefs will respond to the institutional environment that they operate in. Particularly, individuals respond to formal rules and government behavior. My analysis indicates that government’s attempt to provide social capital, morality, and virtues will more than likely lead to the destruction of a virtuous society instead of the creation of one. A government’s productive role in enhancing society is based on providing fundamental institutions and limiting regulations and interventions in a market economy allowing civil society to evolve on its own.

Virtuous behavior will spontaneously arise because individuals will find it is their self-interest to discover ways of cooperating with one another. In a commercial society where individuals are engaging in economic exchange, the exchange of ideas, knowledge and values will also result. During this process, relationships based on abstract rules, higher trust and respect, and a greater sense of self will emerge. In other words, a market economy not only provides economic benefits but it actually creates a more civilized society. The invisible hand of competitive markets not only guides economic exchange leading to the improvement of goods and services; it also provides the incentives for cultural exchange and improvement promoting a more virtuous and free society.

Footnotes

[1] See Boettke, Coyne, and Leeson (2008).

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