## PUTTING MORAL INSIGHT BACK INTO ECONOMICS ENHANCES UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL OUTCOMES

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**Canonical URL:** [PUTTING MORAL INSIGHT BACK INTO ECONOMICS ENHANCES UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL OUTCOMES](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2025/03/enke.pdf)

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### Overview
- Moral psychology and economics, once distinct, are reconnecting; morality influences economic behavior and economic conditions shape moral values.
- Morality is framed as an economically functional tool that enforces cooperation, enabling large-scale production, exchange, and social cohesion.
- The author argues that integrating moral psychology into economic analysis offers lessons for addressing inequality, political polarization, and diminishing trust in institutions.

### Mechanisms shaping moral systems
- Evolutionary perspective: moral systems emerged to enforce prosocial behaviors as societies grew more complex and cooperation became essential.
- Adaptive morality: morality is not fixed but responds to economic environments; globalization and market integration can shift societies from particularist to universalist moral frameworks.
- Historical kinship structures:
  - Societies with strong extended family networks tend toward particularist moral values (priority on loyalty to family and local communities).
  - Societies with looser kinship networks tend toward universalist moral values (fairness extended to strangers and distant relations), as shown in Enke 2019.
- Market exposure:
  - Greater historical exposure to markets is associated with higher levels of universalism; increased interactions with strangers in markets promote impersonal cooperation and trust (Enke 2023).
- Ecology:
  - Regions with intensive cooperation requirements (e.g., homogeneous and fertile land) foster particularist values.
  - Regions with variable or fragmented ecological conditions may foster universalist values (noted by Itzchak Tzachi Raz).

### Political and economic outcomes
- Moral values shape political preferences and policy views; the universalist–particularist distinction helps explain divisions over taxation, redistribution, immigration, climate change, globalization, and foreign aid.
- Typical alignments:
  - Universalist individuals are more likely to support redistributive policies aimed at reducing income inequality, foreign aid, globalization, and climate change prevention.
  - Particularist individuals often oppose such policies, fearing redistribution or immigration will harm their in-group’s prospects.
- Evidence from U.S. data:
  - Universalism quantified via large-scale donations data: districts are more universalist when a larger share of donations goes to more distant beneficiaries (geographically or socially).
  - Universalist districts give more to faraway places but less to local community causes.
  - Districts with higher universalism tend to vote more for Democratic candidates and elect representatives who use universalist moral language in speeches.
  - Representatives from more universalist districts exhibit more left-leaning roll-call voting behavior, even within the same party.
- Moral cleavages contribute to political polarization and complicate consensus-building on economic policy.

### Interdisciplinary approach and policy implications
- Complementary strengths:
  - Economists: manage and analyze large-scale data.
  - Moral psychologists: understand individual decision-making and moral reasoning.
- Combined approach can better explain how moral beliefs translate into voting patterns and policy preferences (example: redistribution).
- Policy design recommendations:
  - Effective economic policy cannot ignore moral considerations; economic preferences are often shaped by moral beliefs that vary across groups.
  - Policymakers should recognize moral diversity; policies aligned with one group’s morals may be opposed by another.
  - Frame redistributive policies to resonate with both universalist and particularist values (for example, emphasize benefits to local communities to appeal to particularists).
  - Anticipate and address moral-driven political polarization to bridge divides and improve prospects for consensus.

### Key studies and evidence cited
- Enke, Benjamin. 2019. “Kinship, Cooperation, and the Evolution of Moral Systems.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 134 (2): 953–1019.
- Enke, Benjamin. 2023. “Market Exposure and Human Morality.” Nature Human Behaviour 7: 134–41.
- Enke, Benjamin. 2024. “Moral Boundaries.” Annual Review of Economics 16: 133– 57.
- Enke, Benjamin, Raymond Fisman, Luis Mota Freitas, and Steven Sun. 2024. “Universalism and Political Representation: Evidence from the Field.” American Economic Review: Insights 6 (2): 214–29.

*Benjamin Enke, Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2025/03/enke.pdf_