Accountability,
Adam Smith and Policy Choice In World Financial Markets, Prepared for Presentation at
WEF/ESRC
Workshop on Incentives and Governance in Global Finance, July 18-20, 2008, Radcliff House, University of Warwick
The central question is why there is a preference for accountability solutions in response to financial market problems. In the process of
dealing with the issue I explore an alternative to the Rational Choice Theory models that currently dominate approaches to questions such as
this one. This leads me to Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments as the basis of a possible alternative model which is loosely developed
and applied here to discussions of financial panics and the challenges of globalization.