Economics and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer

Andrew M. Yuengert is Blanche Seaver Chair of Social Science and Professor of Economics, Social Science Division, Pepperdine University. An economist whose research crosses the boundaries between economics, moral philosophy, and Catholic theology, he is the author of The Boundaries of Technique: Ordering Positive and Normative Concerns in Economic Research (2004) and Approximating Prudence: Aristotelian Practical Wisdom and Economic Models of Choice (2012).

Martin Schlag is the Holder of the Moss-endowed Chair at University of St. Thomas and the Director of the John A. Ryan Institute.

Schlag’s research focuses on the tradition of Catholic social thought in political and economic questions. Specifically, he studies how the Christian faith over the centuries related to markets, trade and exchange, money and interest, and private property and social justice. The focus is on how to promote principled business leadership for the common good and to overcome poverty by including the poor into the market economy.

Schlag’s research is published in a series of books and chapters in edited books. Many of them are the fruit of conferences he has organized in various parts of the world. His experience as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in Rome has given him a unique insight into social and human challenges worldwide.

Schlag is passionate about making his students think about the “big picture” and the deep meaning of truth, goodness and beauty in their work. Business is a noble vocation when it is part of an aspirational narrative made up of dreams, virtues and values that give business purpose and meaning. As a Catholic priest, he wishes to help students live a life worth living.

Joseph P. Kaboski is the David F. and Erin M. Seng Foundation Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and a Fellow of the Kellogg Institute. His research focuses on growth, development and international economics, with an emphasis on structural change, finance and development, schooling and growth, microfinance, explaining international relative price patterns, and the role of inventories in international trade. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Frisch Medal, awarded biannually for the best paper in the journal Econometrica over the previous five years.  He has published scholarly articles in many journals including, the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the Journal of the European Economic Association.  He is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Human Capital. a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Fellow and Board Member of the Bureau of Research in Economics Analysis of Development.  He has consulted for the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis; the World Bank; the International Monetary Fund; and is a Senior Advisor and Board Member to the research department of the Central Bank of Armenia. He is the president of CREDO, a past consultant to Catholic Relief Services, and is currently a Consultant to the USCCB, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.  He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2001 and has previously been an assistant and associate professor at Ohio State University and a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.

Kirk Doran is the Henkels Family Collegiate Chair and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. Doran received his B.A. in Physics from Harvard University in 2002, his S.M. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 2002, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 2008, where his dissertation won Princeton’s labor economics dissertation award.  Doran’s research focuses on issues in labor economics, innovation economics, and international migration, with a particular focus on human capital complementarities. His work has examined the implications of large migrations of top scientists on the productivity and knowledge generation of their peers. Recent work has focused on the role of externalities, collaboration, and geographic distance in knowledge production, the impact of top prizes on the intellectual content of their recipient’s work, and the impact of highly skilled immigrants on firms which randomly receive them. Professor Doran’s research has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Human Resources, Economica, Economics Letters, and Innovation Policy and the Economy, and has been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Upjohn Institute, and the Kauffman Foundation.

Mary Hirschfeld is the John T. Ryan Jr. Associate Professor of Theology and Business Ethics, Academic Director of the Business Ethics and Society Program. She works on the boundaries between theology and economics using an approach rooted in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. She has written on economic inequality, the technocratic paradigm, the financial crisis and the common good.

Selected Publications Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy (Harvard University Press, 2018), “Rethinking Economic Inequality: A Theological Perspective,” Journal of Religious Ethics, 42(2) (June 2019): 259-282, “Reflection on the Financial Crisis: Aquinas on the Proper Role of Finance,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 35(1) (Spring-Summer 2015): 63-82, “What is the Technocratic Paradigm and Must Business Be Structured By It?,” chapter in Business Ethics and Catholic Social Thought, Daniel K. Finn (ed.) (Georgetown University Press, May 2021): 93-113, “What Theology Should and Should Not Learn from the Social Sciences About the Common Good,” in Empirical Foundations of the Common Good: What Theology Can Learn from the Social Sciences, Daniel K. Finn (ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017): 208-240.