Economics and management

Michele T. Villinski

Ph.D. (University of Minnesota) Assistant Professor
Economics and Management
4 Faculty Office Building
765-658-6620
email:  mvillinski@depauw.edu

  Dr. Villinski's web site:  http://fs6.depauw.edu:50080/~mvillinski/

You may request a copy of my current curriculum vita by sending a message to me through my
email link listed above.

"Teaching Ethics at DePauw"
The DePauw magazine, Summer 2005

The discipline of economics has its roots in moral philosophy. Most economics courses today focus primarily on theoretical models, data analysis, and business and policy questions, many of which have an ethical component.

In my Contemporary Economic Problems course, we looked at whether a market system would be appropriate to use for organ donations. Learning about a model economists use for valuing a human life – more precisely, computing the value of a reduction in the statistical probability of death – naturally led to a conversation about whether human life is truly priceless and whether it is moral to assign a dollar value to life. Similarly, use of cost-benefit analysis in environmental economics and in policy analysis is built on utilitarian philosophy.

Students need to have at least a rudimentary understanding of the ethical underpinning of economics in order to be more critical learners and more judicious practitioners of the discipline.

One aspect of our academic community that I believe falls at least loosely under the ethics rubric and that I think needs more emphasis is the crucial importance of personal integrity – including but not limited to integrity in academic work. If we can nurture and fortify a sense of integrity in each of our students, we can dare to hope that each of them will continue to ask difficult ethical questions, examine their own ethical choices, and pursue ethical living in all facets of their life in Greencastle and beyond. And that is indeed a comforting thought.