CREDO was proud to hold its inaugural ASSA session on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. The panel discussion on “Finance and the Social Good” was organized by Galina Hale (UCSC) and Valerie Ramey (UCSD) and moderated by Martijn Cremers (Notre Dame). The talks by the panelists and discussant illustrated the variety of ways that economics and Catholic Social Thought can be integrated to enlighten both domains.
Maureen O’Hara (Cornell University) explained why ethics plays an important role in the functioning of financial markets and then summarized her new research that uses network models to study whether ethics can propagate in a market.
The talks by Ulrike Malmendier (Berkeley) and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh (Columbia) exemplified how economists can use their toolkits to inform and improve policies with the goal of expanding access to housing, a goal discussed in many Church statements through the years because of its close link to human dignity. Malmendier’s research uncovered unintended negative consequences of some housing policies adopted in the 1990s, whereas Van Nieuwerburgh’s research found some additional avenues through which other housing policies could raise the welfare of low-income households.
Borja Larrain’s (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) discussion of how we should interpret and learn from Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti not only dispelled some common misinterpretations of the encyclical, but also elucidated a principle that was suggested by some of the leading early 20th Century economists but seems forgotten by many today: Efficient markets, profits, and such are not the ultimate goals, but merely possible means to achieve the ultimate goal of improving the lives of every human person.
Father Dominic Chai, S.J. of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development offered additional insights on the themes raised by the four talks and linked them to Catholic Social Thought.
The prepared speeches were followed by a lively question and answer session. Numerous members of the audience commented that they found the session “inspiring.”
The video of the session will be available on the ASSA web site in the near future.
