文档介绍：Why ethics codes don't work
In the reading "Why Ethics Codes Don’t Work," finance professor John Dobson notes that during a period in which financial professionals have been criticized for insider trading, breaking rules around IPOs (initial public offerings), and bilking investors, there has been a proliferation of ethics codes for the financial industry. How can this be? Dobson argues that the mismatch between words and es from the acculturation of financial professionals into a particular kind of moral philosophy — one rooted in neo-classical economics.
Dobson reviews the central s of financial economics. Most of the s are, in his view, purely formal in defining "instrumental rationality in terms of the consistent ranking of preferences." Where financial economics takes a strong value-oriented stance is with "the assumption that individuals always prefer more wealth to less… Personal wealth maximization is, therefore, a rational agent’s sine qua non." That is, personal wealth maximization is treated as an ethical given from the perspective of instrumental rationality.
However, from the alternative perspective of substantive rationality (the perspective adopted by most business ethicists), desires and preferences, particularly the ultimate goals of action, need to be carefully examined and questioned as to their appropriateness and sufficiency. Hence, there will be times