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Does Market Interaction Erode Moral Values?

2021; The MIT Press; Volume: 105; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1162/rest_a_01021

1530-9142

Björn Bartling, Ernst Fehr, Yagiz Özdemir,

Ethics in Business and Education

Abstract The widespread use of markets leads to unprecedented material well-being in many societies. We study whether market interaction, as a side effect, erodes moral values. In an influential paper, Falk and Szech (2013) provide experimental data that seem to suggest that “market interaction erodes moral values.” Although we replicate their main treatment effect, we show that additional treatments are necessary to corroborate their conclusion. These treatments reveal that playing repeatedly, and not market interaction, causes the erosion of moral values. Our paper thus shows that neither Falk and Szech's data nor our data support the claim that markets erode morals.