One Point Of Entering Into Studying Economic Ethic

The relation of economy and ethic has passed a historical process of change. First, economic study was not an independent knowledge, it often mixed up with politics, ethics and so on; with the emergence and development of capitalism, economics starts to split up and stand alone from other disciplines step by step, and gradually cast aside ethics in the course of its theoretical development. After the Classical Economics founded by Adam Smith developed to the Neoclassical Economics that is purely mathematics, economics has been more and more departed from the reality for its losing supporting of ethics and the formal characteristic, and it loses the vitality of explaining reality. Thus, conforming to the double needs of theory and reality, The New Institutional Economics brings again the ethical factors into its own theoretical view.The New Institutional Economics takes the transaction cost as the key model to study and analyze economic phenomenon, its theoretical system includes mainly the theories of transaction cost, property right and institutional changes and so on. Although in the institutional theory of The New Institutional Economics there includes the function of informal institutions such as ethics and morality and so on for reducing transaction cost, but most economists of The New Institutional Economics have not paid enough attention to it, only North has profoundly studied it. His emphasis on informal institutions lays special emphasis on ideology, and the accounts of factors of ethics and morality are not very detailed. In fact, the traditional ethical culture as a component of informal institutions, its function and influence on transaction cost in the economic actions are not neglected, especially such for China where there is an age-old ethical tradition. The conception of North's "path dependence" explains exactly that. The path dependence is similar to "inertia" in physics, it means that the institutions chosen by people in the past will produce a mechanism in institutional changes, once this mechanism makes the institutional changes to enter into some path, this path will strengthen itself in its laterdevelopment, so makes institutions to go along the decided path. In the course of establishing our socialist market economy, the traditional culture as a informal institution has a great influence on formal institution of market economy.This dissertation pays mainly close attention to the relation of ethics and morality as informal institution and transaction cost in The New Institutional Economics, and probes into how do ethics and morality reduce transaction cost of economic life. This not only has theoretical significance for strengthening links and exchanges between economics and ethics, and giving impetus to the research of economic ethic, but also has realistic significance of guide for our present construction of formal and informal institutions of market economy.The full text contains preface, formal section and later section. The preface expounds mainly the necessity of studying this problem and the theoretical significance and realistic significance. The former section divides into three chapters, at first, starting out from causes of giving rise to transaction cost, it generalizes all sorts of definitions of transaction cost of economists of The New Institutional Economics, and puts forward own opinions of problems of the connotation and essence of transaction cost, of the necessary transaction cost and unnecessary transaction cost and so on, and believes that the transaction cost which we can reduce in reality is just the unnecessary transaction cost, not the necessary transaction cost. Second, starting out from analyzing the intrinsic relation of transaction cost and ethics and morality, it tries to prove what is the basis on which the ethics and morality taken as an informal institution has influence and function on the transaction cost in economic life, and prove which concrete mechanisms that ethics and morality influences on transaction cost. The later section divides into fourth, fifth and sixth chapter, it analyzes mainly categories such as justice, honesty and sincerity, cooperation and so on, the relation of transactions and transaction cost. There is a common thought that the justice and the efficiency are conflicted with each other in marketeconomy; in fact, the development of market economy embodies intrinsically an adherence to justice that is a basic rule of ethics in transaction actions of economy; we can say in a sense that the developing history of market economy is just the developing history of the category justice which is the ethical standard of economy. Practices have proved that a mature system of market economy is always the system or mechanism of transaction actions which contains the justice. One of essential functions of formal institutions such as property right and so on provides just an environment of justice for transaction actions of market, or at least provides a value and idea of justice, thereby provides proper support of values and moral judgments for people's transaction actions. The factors of influencing the quality of justice of market transaction are many and varied, there are both macro-causes of institutional arrangement and micro-causes of statuses of both sides of transactions, the occupying of information, the ability of bargaining and so on. Comparatively speaking, the arrangements and creation of institutions are the keys to decide the successful development of transaction actions and the quality of justice. The influences of honesty and sincerity on transactions and transaction cost are very direct, it influences not only the scope and the profundity of transaction of all sides for a long time, but also influences directly the size of transaction cost. On one hand, the honesty and sincerity exists with the way of a institution; on the other hand, it plays excessively a role through moral autonomy of persons concerned. The construction of honesty and sincerity has the most important significance for our present socialist market economy. Of course, the honesty and sincerity both contacts with and differentiates from the trust. The cooperation has both economic significance and ethical significance; in cooperation, the consideration of economic interest and the pursuit of moral value are mutually infiltrated. The market transaction and the cooperation can not be divided, the cooperation provides a guaranty for success of transaction and promotes increasing development of transaction; also can make transaction cost to...