Economics of Vices and Virtues

International conference "Economics of Vices and Virtues" (58–60 Galernaya Street).

Organizing Committee

• Aleksei Kudrin (SPbU)
• Danila Raskov (SPbU)
• Eline Poelmans (Catholic University Leuven, Belgium)
• Deirdre McCloskey (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)
• Denis Kadochnikov (SPbU)
• Aleksander Pogrebnyak (SPbU)
• Viktor Ryazanov (SPbU)
• Aleksander Nemtsov (Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry)
• Vladimir Ignatiev (Novosibirsk State Technical University)
• Aleksander Skorobogatov (Higher School of Economics)

While accepting the assumption about the rationality of economic agents as a starting point of analysis, economists still cannot afford to ignore that rational choice in any case is made within a framework of specific beliefs, values and behavioral patterns. Some of these behavioral patterns are traditionally considered to represent virtues, and some—passions and vices, and in different cultures and subcultures the interpretation may vary. Is this kind of assessment relevant for economic science and economic policy? In order to understand this, we propose to discuss (from the point of view of economics and culture) such phenomena as addictions and habits in consumption of certain products, the specifics of policy—making in such cases, problems of interpretation of consumer addictions and habits in culture and social science, as well as the problem of prohibitions. This topic is supposed to come back to the discussion of the provocative thesis of Bernard de Mandeville in his "The Fable of the Bees" (1714) that the private vices tend to form the public benefit.

Topics

• Virtues and Vices: Criteria and Interpretations
• Economy and Culture of Production and Consumption of Alcohol
• Economics on Virtues and Vices
• Formation of Attachments and Addictions, as a Business Strategy
• Overcoming Attachments and Addictions as a State Policy Target
• Economics of Prohibitions, Temperance Movements and Public Policy Economy and Culture of Smoking, of Gambling, of Internet Addiction
• "Green Lifestyle:" The Virtues or Vices