Table of Contents

Ethics, Economy, and Entrepreneurship
Why Ethics?
Why Economy?
Why Entrepreneurship?
Part 1: Key Concept
Trade
Resources
Cost
Institutions
Value
Part 2: Progress
Adam Smith on Progress
Transaction Cost and Progress
Commerce and Progress
Production Possibilities Frontier
What Seems Like Progress
Part 3: Understanding Trade
Conditions for Trade
Comparative Advantage
Division of Labor
Buyers
Sellers
A Market: Supply and Demand
A Market Responds: Price and Quantity
Economic Surplus
Price Signals and Spontaneous Order
Price Controls
Economic Science: Putting Theory to the Test
Progress and Wealth Creation
Part 4: Trust, Agency, and Bystanders
Principal-Agent Framework
Cost to Bystanders
Competitors are not Bystanders
The Logic of the Commons
Environmental Tragedies
Property
Parcels
Communal Property
Trust
Benefits for Bystanders
Market Power
Monopoly Power
Monopsony Power
International Trade and Trade Protection
What Should Not be for Sale
Part 5: Management of a Commercial Society
Financial Institutions
Fractional Reserve Banking
Measuring Economies
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Unemployment Rate
Measuring the Price Level
Fiscal Policy
Monetary Policy
Public Choice
Corruption
Part 6: Personal and Business Finance
Accounting Basics
Compound Growth
Saving, Borrowing, and Investing
Marketing Fundamentals
Insurance
Break-Even Analysis
Budgeting
Financial Management
Part 7: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Knowledge Discovery
It Takes More than Ideas
What Innovation Looks Like
Entry, Exit, and the Role of Profit
Creative Destruction
Entrepreneurs as Resource Integrators
Entrepreneurship as a Process
Markets Don’t Exist
Competitive Advantage - The Dynamics of Remaining Viable
The Big Errors
The Entrepreneur and Self-Assessment

About the Author

Cathleen Johnson is currently teaching in the Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law program at the University of Arizona.

Robert F. Lusch was Professor of Marketing at the University of Arizona Business School.

David Schmidtz is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy (College of Social and Behavioral Sciences), Eller Chair of Service-Dominant Logic (College of Management), founding Director of the Center for Philosophy of Freedom, founder of the Department of Political Economy and Moral Sciences, and editor in chief of Social Philosophy and Policy, at the University of Arizona.

Reviews

The authors do an outstanding job of capturing the essential, complementary roles of commerce and ethics in short, concise chapters that are easily digestible for readers of almost any age and educational background. They adroitly link seemingly diverse concepts into a simple narrative of societal sustainability through human interdependence and cooperation. Commercial Society is a thoughtful, delightfully easy, and critically important read.
*Stephen L. Vargo, Professor of Marketing, University of Hawai’i at Manoa*

This thought-provoking text encourages exploration and engagement in life’s conversation regarding the connection of ethical behavior to commercial economic progress, as well as the importance of entrepreneurship in creating ways to make others better off. It is succinct and will engage students creatively and deeply in dialogue, study, and research.
*Candace Smith, Economics Teacher*

Learning economics is hard because it is part social science, part business discipline, part moral philosophy. You need to learn how the world works, how to flourish in business and life, and how choices benefit or harm others. Commercial Society is the first text that consistently stresses all three of these points in a clear and simple way. Highly recommended!
*Joshua C. Hall, Professor of Economics, West Virginia University*

A well-conceived and well-executed guide for young adults embarking on lives in our commercial society. The book provides a beautifully clear description of trade and its centrality to human life, the institutions supporting trade, and the ethics woven into its fabric. On the practical side it discusses personal and business finance and ends with a challenge to the reader to start his or her own business.
*David Keyt, Research Professor, The Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, Univerisity of Arizona, USA*