Renowned Economist Virgil Storr to Deliver Spring 2025 Center for Ethics Public Lecture: "Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals?"

The Murphy Institute Center for Ethics is pleased to announce its Spring 2025 Public Lecture featuring the distinguished Virgil Storr, Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Professor Storr will present his insights in a talk titled "Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals?" at Tulane on Thursday, April 24 at 4:00 PM in the Diboll Gallery, Room 300 on the 3rd floor of the Malkin Sacks Commons.

A cornerstone of the Center for Ethics' programming, the Public Lecture series invites leading academics to share their current research with the Tulane community and the wider public. Since 2001, the Center has hosted over 200 influential guest speakers, fostering critical engagement with ethical issues across various disciplines. These lectures are always free and open to all.

In addition to his professorship at George Mason University, Storr serves as Vice President of Academic and Student Programs at the Mercatus Center and is the Don C. Lavoie Senior Fellow in the F.A. Hayek Program in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. His diverse research interests include the social and moral aspects of markets, community recovery after disasters, the impact of culture on economic activity, and the history of the Bahamas. Professor Storr's extensive work in political economy has been published in numerous esteemed academic journals.

His recent book, Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? (co-authored with Ginny Seung Choi), directly addresses the complex relationship between economic systems and ethical behavior, exploring whether or not engaging in market activities is morally corrupting. Storr and Choi demonstrate that people in market societies are wealthier, healthier, happier and better connected than those of societies where markets are more restricted. 

More provocatively, they explain that successful markets require and produce virtuous participants. Markets serve as moral spaces that both rely on and reward their participants for being virtuous. Rather than harming individuals morally, the market is an arena where individuals are encouraged to be their best moral selves. Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals? invites us to reassess the claim that markets corrupt our morals.

The Center for Ethics' Spring 2025 Public Lecture with Virgil Storr is co-sponsored by 89.9 WWNO. All members of the Tulane community and the general public are warmly invited to attend this free and thought-provoking event.

Event Details:

Spring 2025 Center for Ethics Public Lecture

Virgil Storr - "Do Markets Corrupt Our Morals?" 

Date: Thursday, April 24, 2025

Time: 4:00 PM

Location: Diboll Gallery, Room 300, 3rd Floor, Malkin Sacks Commons, Tulane University

Admission: Free and open to the public

We encourage you to join us for this timely and important discussion. For more information, email murphy@tulane.edu.