RT Article
T1 Reciprocity as a Foundation of Financial Economics
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 131
IS 1
SP 43
OP 67
A1 Johnson, Timothy C.
LA English
YR 2015
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785655477
AB This paper argues that the subsistence of the fundamental theorem of contemporary financial mathematics is the ethical concept ‘reciprocity’. The argument is based on identifying an equivalence between the contemporary, and ostensibly ‘value neutral’, Fundamental Theory of Asset Pricing with theories of mathematical probability that emerged in the seventeenth century in the context of the ethical assessment of commercial contracts in a framework of Aristotelian ethics. This observation, the main claim of the paper, is justified on the basis of results from the Ultimatum Game and is analysed within a framework of Pragmatic philosophy. The analysis leads to the explanatory hypothesis that markets are centres of communicative action with reciprocity as a rule of discourse. The purpose of the paper is to reorientate financial economics to emphasise the objectives of cooperation and social cohesion and to this end, we offer specific policy advice.
K1 Pragmatism
K1 Communicative Action
K1 Reciprocity
K1 Financial economics
DO 10.1007/s10551-014-2257-x