Navigating the moral economy: An integrative review

The concept of the moral economy is yet to reach semantic maturity. This article provides a fresh classification of works in the moral economy literature: the early and late classics, conceptual-historical reviewers, types of case studies, political uses, as well as calls for change in economics. The reopening of the economic to the ethical is looked at briefly, through philosophical and economic classics, as an illustrative scaffolding for the current context of the moral economy concept. The article then turns to specific moral economic directions within the field of economics: incorporating the environmental understanding, applying virtue ethics to economic entities, and obtaining an ethical understanding of human needs. I examine the question of whether the moral economy can embody moral economics, i.e., the incorporation of ethical elements into economic theory. Through presenting forces of both divergence and convergence, I argue for keeping the semantic connection between the moral economy and moral economics open.