The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens Yale University Press New Haven and London, 2016, 288 pages, ISBN: 9780300163803

The words ‘moral’ and ‘economy’ originated in the classical intellectualworld and in Aristotle’s social theory; besides the politics and ethics, economy was thethird domain of practical philosophy where excessive profit making and charging ofinterest were not the moral practices. However, in the middle of the eighteenth century,the ‘moral economy’ got separated from the morality, and turned out to be simply areligious concept. Defining the moral economy in the 21st century on the basis ofgoodness, fairness, and justice is something perplexing for the proponents of marketeconomies. But can we ignore the moral basis in our ‘ordinary business’ of life? Thebook under review, The Moral Economy by Samuel Bowles raises several questions inthis regard and tries to show that our basic human goodness is more effective indecision making than the financial incentives. The strength of this book lies in its usingdifferent case studies and behavioral experiments with evidence-based arguments onthe workable economic and financial world of the 21st century. Islamic economics isbased on morality and ethics. Thus, the purpose behind the review of this path breakingwork is to understand its relevance to Islamic economics that has emerged as a newparadigm in recent decades.