Ethics and economics in the world of globalized finance

Abstract

The paper analyzes the reasons that led, in the years following the nineteenth century, to a vision of economic phenomena distant from ethics. After a brief introduction on the meaning of the concept of economics in the ancient world, the article describes which factors contributed most to developing an image of human behaviour, motivated only by perfect rationality, self-interest, wealth maximi-zation, showing the reasons that have separated economics and finance from ethics. The paper then deals with the theme of how to bring finance closer to the real economy, starting from the need to search for solutions capable of producing radical changes in the business models of companies and in the financing investments, aimed at maximizing social inclusion and collective well-being. The final part describes the initiatives, promoted by the EU for the development of the Capital Market Union and the instrument recently introduced by the EU to develop finance long-term investments, the ELTIFs. In the conclusion, we present a proposal for the creation of a new innovative asset class, the Infrastructure Mortgage Backed Security, for the promotion of investments in infrastructures, responding to the needs of investors and requiring business models, based on shared ethic values and on the responsibility of all the agents, working in-side and outside the companies.