Doing Good and Doing Well: Economic Valuation in Moral Markets

• In Event: 359 - Regular Session. Economic Sociology 3

Abstract

This paper investigates the assignment of economic value to firms’ social and environmental performance through a comparative analysis of two recently created moral markets, Inclusive Businesses and Responsible Investment, which join companies’ pursuit of social welfare with that of economic gain. Yet, while the proposed distinctive appeal of both Inclusive Business and Responsible Investing is premised on firms’ production of social/environmental benefit as a social good and as a source of shareholder return, the assignment of economic value to firms’ social/environmental performance did not occur in both settings. This paper shows that extant literature’s attention to actors’ conception of the market – including their meaning of the market and their model of the market – are not adequate to explain the assignment of economic value to firms in these markets. Instead, attention must be given to the work of evaluators, whose capacity to construct the complex tools of financial valuation required for economic valuation, is dependent on their valuation repertoire – their stock of professional knowledge and experience with existing valuation methods and conventions—from they draw in order to create new tools. Consideration of this critical work of evaluators allows for a more comprehensive understanding of why not all moral markets that embrace companies' capacity to produce social and shareholder value necessarily involve the economic valuation of firms' non-financial performance. This paper possesses critical theoretical implications for not only the study of money but also for our understanding of the role of the market in contemporary society.

Author

• Emily A. Barman, Boston University