Econogenic Harm and the Case for ‘Economy Harm Profile’ Analysis

The economics profession aspires to promote the public good, defined variously as social welfare, freedom, justice, sustainability, and other valued goods. But the institutions, rules, and practices economists advocate in pursuit of that goal also cause harm. The profession has nevertheless been relatively inattentive to what I term ‘econogenic’ or economist-induced harm. An adequate engagement with econogenic harm would require new concepts, frameworks, and normative criteria for assessing economic performance. The paper presents one such framework, an ‘economy harm profile.’ An economy harm profile is given by the nature of the prevalent, averted and covered harms; productivity of harms; distribution of harms; mechanisms of harm generation and distribution; and consent and coercion that are associated with harm-generative and distributive mechanisms. There is much to be gained from the investigation of economy harm profiles. Economic harm profile analysis might help the economics profession to design and implement reforms that eliminate gratuitous harms while preparing for and ameliorating necessary harms.