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  4. June 2013
  5. What's the Good of the Market? An Essay on Michael Sandel's What Money Can't Buy

What's the Good of the Market? An Essay on Michael Sandel's What Money Can't Buy

  • Timothy Besley
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 51, no. 2, June 2013
(pp. 478-95)
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Abstract

This essay will discuss the criticisms of the economic approach to markets offered by Michael Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. After reviewing the main arguments, the essay looks at these from three main angles. First, it relates them to different traditions of thinking about markets and their achievements that have been developed by economists. Second, it discusses the idea that markets can change values as argued by Sandel in light of recent related literature in economics. Third, it discusses some of the literature on alternatives to using the market to allocate resources and the pros and cons of these.

Citation

Besley, Timothy. 2013. "What's the Good of the Market? An Essay on Michael Sandel's What Money Can't Buy." Journal of Economic Literature, 51 (2): 478-95. DOI: 10.1257/jel.51.2.478

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • A11 Role of Economics; Role of Economists
  • A13 Relation of Economics to Social Values
  • D40 Market Structure and Pricing: General
  • D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
  • P10 Capitalist Systems: General