The initial stage of the project consisted of a series of working conferences, held at venues including UCLA, Georgetown University, the University of Cambridge, and the Harvard Business School. Our interdisciplinary approach has allowed us, collectively, to tell a complete story. The description begins with an understanding of the formal nature of the strategic problems of cooperation and selfishness and of the way in which economic actors can reformulate the terms of their games so as to make cooperative outcomes dominant strategies; it moves through the appearance of such solutions at the level of zoology and primatology and on to the human psychology of values.
We have looked at this psychology through a number of intellectual lenses, including neuroscience and cognitive psychology, economics, sociology, and philosophy. We have examined how these values can inform, and be located in, cultural norms and institutions such as law, education, and markets rules of exchange. We have also expressly examined the role of discourse about free enterprise in shaping how we view it, and the importance of reintroducing values into the discourse. Finally, we look at how a value-based understanding can apply to business and economic life even more broadly, as the actual basis for a successful market-based system.
This work has been gathered into a scholarly volume published by Princeton University Press under the title Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in Free Enterprise (2008). In addition, all of the chapters are now available in working paper form through specially designated platform at SSRN at: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Gruter-Institute.html
Program Participants:
Core writing Participants
– Carl Bergstrom (Zoology, University of Washington)
– Sarah Brosnan (Biology and Economics, Emory)
– William Casebeer (Philosophy and Neuroscience, Naval Postgraduate School)
– John Clippinger (Business and Digital Institutions, Berkman Center, Harvard Law
– Frans deWaal (Biology, Emory)
– Robert Frank (Economics, Cornell)
– Herb Gintis (Economics, Santa Fe Institute)
– Oliver Goodenough (Law, Vermont)
– Charles Handy (Business Author, UK)
– Rakesh Khurana (Business, Harvard)
– Kevin McCabe (Economics and Law, George Mason)
– Erin O’Hara (Law, Vanderbilt)
– Elinor Ostrom (Government, University of Indiana)
– Peter Richerson (Biology, UC Davis)
– Richard Shreve (Business, Tuck School, Dartmouth)
– Vernon Smith (Economics, George Mason)
– Robert Solomon (Business and Philosophy, U. of Texas)
– Lynn Stout (Law, UCLA)
– Bart Wilson (Economics and Law, George Mason)
– Paul Zak (Neuroeconomics, Claremont Graduate University)
Additional Participants
– Simon Deakin (Business, Law and Economics, Cambridge)
– Donald Elliott (Law, Georgetown)
– Charles Firestone (Aspen Institute)
– Mark Grady (Law, UCLA)
– Brigitte Granville (Economics, Queen Mary College, University of London)
– Michael Jensen (Business, Harvard)
– Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Business, Harvard)
– Don Langevoort (Law, Georgetown)
– Paul Lawrence (Harvard Business School)
– Tony Lawson (Business, Cambridge)
– Theodore Roosevelt Malloch (The Roosevelt Group)
– Barnaby Marsh (New College, Oxford University /John Templeton Foundation)
– John Mikhail (Law, Georgetown University Law Center)
– Jorge Moll (Neuroscience, National Institutes of Health)
– Priscilla de Moustier (Business, INSEAD Initiative for Family Enterprise)
– Nitin Nohria (Business, Harvard)
– Matt Ridley (Author, Behavioral Biology, UK)
– Sara Savage (Divinity, Cambridge University)
– Darren Schreiber (Political Science, UCSD)
– David Schwab (Political Science, University of Indiana)
– Tania Singer ((Neuroscience, University of Zurich)
– Ajit Singh (Economics, Cambridge University)
– Paul Solman (Business, PBS Correspondent)
– John Studzinski (Senior Managing Director, The Blackstone Group
Free Enterprise: Values in Action – Disseminating the message
The research collaborations and conclusions have proven very fruitful for the participants of the “Free Enterprise: Values in Action” initiative. In addition to a scholarly book to be published in late 2007, a popular book is also in the works, and a variety of articles in the press have helped to stimulate thinking people outside the academy to pursue the more in-depth materials. Participants of this research program have been provided support to make presentations drawing on the work of the Values program at a variety of venues with the expectation that this will stimulate further papers, chapters, books and other scholarly output. The relatively inexpensive element of the program continues to prove successful in stimulating presentations in contexts.
Below is a list of the presentations to date –
Rakesh Khurana, PhD – “The Shifting Power Equation: Exploring the Implications”. World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, January 24, 2007.
Rakesh Khurana, PhD – “All About Trust”. World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2007.
Paul Zak, PhD – “7 Lessons of Economics”. Rand Corporation, February 5, 2007.
Paul Zak, PhD – “Sacrifice, Generosity & Trust”. University of Michigan, February 19, 2007.
Herb Gintis, PhD – “Modeling Cooperation among Self-regarding Agents”. University of Milan, Lago Maggiori, Italy, February 23, 2007.
Rakesh Khurana, PhD – “The Professionalization Project in American Business Education: 1881-1941”. Cornell University, March 3, 2007.
Sarah Brosnan, PhD – “Nonhuman primate perspectives on fairness and prosocial behavior”. University of North Carolina, March 26, 2007.
John Clippinger, PhD – “In a Crowd of One”. Aspen Institute, April 6, 2007
Lynn Stout, JD – “Why we Overlook Conscience”. Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, April 13, 2007.
Paul Zak, PhD – “Moral Markets”. Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, April 13, 2007.
Elinor Ostrom, PhD – “The Vital Role of Norms and Rules in Maintaining Open Public and Private Economies“. University of Freiburg, April 18, 2007.
Rakesh Khurana, PhD – “The Professionalization Project in American Business Education: 1881-1941”. Boston College, April 20, 2007.
Herb Gintis, PhD – “Bringing Psychology Economics and Sociology together to Explain the Interaction of Selfish and Altruistic Preferences”. University of St. Gallen, June 1, 2007.
Elinor Ostrom, PhD -“The Role of Norms and Rules in Maintaining Open Public and Private Economies”. Humboldt University, June 1, 2007.
William Casebeer. PhD – “Moral Markets: How Free Exchange Cultivates the Virtues”. University of Kiev, June 11, 2007.
Free Enterprise: Values in Action – Conference List
Conference: “Legal Institutions and Entrepreneurship”. Co-sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University. February 8-9, 2008
Debate: Markets Are Moral. Chaired by Professor Oliver Goodenough, New York University, Stern School of Business. November 27, 2007.
Debate: Are Markets Moral? Chaired by Professor Brigitte Granville, Queen Mary, University of London. April 24, 2007.
Symposium: “Moral Markets: A Symposium On Values, Economics And The Brain”. Gruter Institute and the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, April 13, 2007.
Working Conference: “Free Enterprise: Values in Action.” Gruter Institute/John Templeton Foundation Program Co-Sponsored by Harvard Business School and The UCLA – Sloan Foundation Research Program on Business Organizations, June 20-21, 2006.
Working Conference: “Free Enterprise: Values in Action.” Gruter Institute/John Templeton Foundation Program Co-Sponsored by Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge and The UCLA – Sloan Foundation Research Program on Business Organizations, March 23, 24, and 25, 2006.
Working Conference: “Free Enterprise: Values in Action.” Gruter Institute/John Templeton Foundation Program Co-Sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center and The UCLA – Sloan Foundation Research Program on Business Organizations, January 13-14, 2006.
Working Conference: “Free Enterprise: Values in Action.” Gruter Institute/John Templeton Foundation Program Co-Sponsored by UCLA School of Law and The UCLA – Sloan Foundation Research Program on Business Organizations, September 9-10, 2005.
Roundtable Workshop: ” Free Enterprise: Values in Action.” Squaw Valley, CA, May 26-27, 2005.
Free Enterprise: Values in Action Project featured in LA Times Article
An article entitled Testing the role of trust and values in financial decisions appeared on the front page of the LA Times business section on January 21, 2007. The article describes the work and goals of the “Free Enterprise: Values in Action” project sponsored by the Gruter Institute, the Templeton Foundation, and the UCLA-Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Program on Business Organizations. According to the article, “[i]n exploring the morality of economic behavior, [project participants] aim to put a more positive spin on Western-style capitalism. They want to demonstrate, in a post-Enron world, that markets are driven not by greed but by positive behavior.” While oversimplifying the thinking behind and goals of the project, the article provides a good broad overview of the work of several project researchers and is worth a read.
Character, Business and the Forgotten Adam Smith
In conjunction with the “Free Enterprise: Values in Action” project, Gruter Institute Research Fellow Oliver Goodenough, has written an op-ed piece entitled “Character, Business and the Forgotten Adam Smith” which has been published in the Rutland Herald , The Providence Journal, The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio), The Knoxville Sentinel, the Scripts News Service, and the Nashua Telegraph. In the article, Goodenough discusses the dangers of the “self-interest is all” myth and the important role ethics and values such as honesty, trustworthiness, and fairness should and do play in business and economic life. Goodenough contends that “[a] business culture explicitly modeled on character, in balance with selfishness, will capture more of the gains of trade and specialization that are at the heart of this prosperity.”