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Herbert Gintis

Herbert Gintis, Professor of Economics at Central European University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, is author of The Bounds of Reason.

Articles

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Is Equality Passé?

The welfare state is in trouble not because selfishness is rampant (it is not), but because many egalitarian programs no longer evoke deeply held notions of fairness.
Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis

Forums

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Is Equality in Our Nature?

Pessimism about a selfish electorate is fundamentally misdirected.
Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles

Forum Responses

Response: Giving Economists Their Due

Giving Economists Their Due Michael Sandel makes two serious errors in his defense of morality over markets. First, his critique of economic theory is incorrect. The idea that some valuable things should...
Herbert Gintis

Response: Is Equality in Our Nature? — Final Response

Some analysts trace the problems of the welfare state to waning public altruism and ascendant self-interest. We disagree with this diagnosis. Rather, two other basic motives–strong reciprocity and basic needs generosity–underlie the public’s assessment...
Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles

Response: The Ownership Solution — Forum Response

For most of the twentieth century, three broadly identifiable policy paradigms existed for grappling with the economic inequalities generated in advanced capitalist countries. Socialists advocated government ownership; social democrats advocated the welfare...
Herbert Gintis

Response: A Defense of Communal Values

The cosmopolitan, Martha Nussbaum tells us, is “the person whose primary allegiance is to the community of human beings in the entire world.” The nationalist, by contrast, holds a primary allegiance to...
Herbert Gintis

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