For citation:
Novikova, T. S. (2024). The Relationship between Ethics and Economics in Substantiating the Government Economics Policy: Agent-Based Approach. AlterEconomics, 21(4), 641–657. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2024.21-4.1
Abstract:
The article examines the relationship between ethical ideas and the main stages of scientific and technological development. The creation of Kant’s system coincided with industrial development and the spread of a market economy, often accompanied by recurring crises. Kant’s ideas are especially relevant today, given modern global challenges and the need to justify state policies in response to fundamental shifts in priorities and decision-making criteria, all while considering ethical arguments. As a decision-making tool suited to these new priorities, a software and analytical complex has been developed, which includes an agent-based model as its central element and is supplemented by a block of public welfare functions to account for the ethical aspects of technological development. This approach enables the integration of key decisions at the microeconomic level, considering individual agents, and the state’s role in shaping a system of taxes and transfers aimed at improving welfare while addressing social inequality. Alongside traditional economic efficiency indicators, this model incorporates moral considerations through a coefficient of inequality aversion, embedded within the spatial functions of social welfare. Inequality aversion in the model reflects Kant’s moral law, uniting agents through a shared sense of good will, which is perceived by the state when forming social policies. By adjusting this coefficient from zero to infinity, the model can simulate various philosophical approaches and evaluate decisions from the full spectrum of social justice ideas, from utilitarian to Rawlsian. Experimental calculations for the contemporary Russian economy highlight a significant gap between the actual and desired social policies of the state. The consent of all agents to act toward overcoming inequality emerges as an internal necessity, aligning with Kant’s principle of autonomy of will.
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