Unirule Saloon for Young Scholars (IV) Held: The Hidden Moral Foundations of Voluntary Exchange
Author:Unirule
Time：2014-07-04 14:14:10 Clicks:
The fourth Unirule Saloon for Young Scholars was held on the evening of June 6th at Unirule Institute of Economics. This saloon aims at providing a platform for academic conversations for young scholars from the east and the west.
This session was joined by Dr. Jason Arentz from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Arentz is Adjunct Professor for the department of Economics and Supply Chain Management. His topic was “The Hidden Moral Foundations of Voluntary Exchange.”
Dr. Arentz stated that personal rights is the most important thing in economic exchange, i.e., no matter how high the price is, a person is still entitled to hold his rights not to participate in the trade. From this perspective, the monopolist enterprises in the market cannot lower the price of their products even under administrative pressure. Dr. Arentz insisted on his individualist analysis, claiming that the rights of the enterprises were the rights of the owners of the enterprises. Therefore, the state-owned enterprise itself was a bad form of enterprise no matter in the United States or China, as there is a lack of clarity in the ownership, which could further lead to corruption and rent-seeking behaviors.
Several Chinese scholars also took part in the discussion, including Professor FENG Xingyuan, Deputy Director of Unirule; Dr. MO Zhihong, Associate Professor from Capital University of Economics and Business; and Ms. LIU Yan from Caijing Magazine. Dr. MO stated that there was no doubt to the importance of personal rights, but how personal rights were clarified and how the institution of limited rights came into being were at issue. Ms. LIU Yan, on the other hand, proposed questions concerning the contradiction between morality and rights by referring to the case of a marriage.
There were in total some 20 participants at the evening, including students from prestigious universities, officials and analysts from foreign embassies to China, and journalists. Discussion was also carried out concerning the moral dilemma proposed by Professor Michael J. Sandel. This saloon was organized by Mr. MA Junjie, Assistant to the Director of Unirule International Cooperation Center, and gracefully hosted by Mr. ZHANG Lin, Academic Assistant at Unirule Academic Committee.
“Unirule Saloon for Young Scholars from the East and the West” is an open and free platform for academic discussion; it encompasses a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural topics; held once a month, the working language of the saloon is English. We believe that discussion will bring about the light of thoughts, and we hope in free discussion, young scholars from both China and the west will harvest inspiration, thoughts, and wisdom. We look forward to having young scholars from home and abroad join us. Please check our website for the upcoming events.
(Provided by International Cooperation Department)
