Etica ed economia

In a framework where laws are assumed to reflect the ethical values of the market social economy, the paper analyzes the role of ethics both in the wealth production and in the wealth distribution. As for the first item, ethics becomes relevant in the discretionary space left by laws that are often unclear or not fully protected by controls and penalties. Ethics is a relevant factor of economic growth but its diffusion is often blocked by short term invidividual interests, while the means to diffuse ethics in the society are of uncertain impact. A wide diffusion of the corporate social responsibility may be very helpful. As for the wealth distribution, ethics implies a meritocratic system of individual rewards but also an additional redistribution, whose analytical basis is offered by the “newcontractualism” proposed by John Rawls. Ethics appears then the result of a collective choice made under uncertainty and embedded in the religious rules or in the constitutions, which become the constraint of the ordinary laws that are much more influenced by the present conflicting interests.