On April 19, The Murphy Institute’s Center for Ethics hosted 2023-2024’s third Public Lecture featuring Subramanian Rangan, Professor of Strategy and Management and the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court Endowed Chair of Societal Progress at INSEAD, the global business school located in Fontainebleau, France. Prof. Rangan’s research explores the evolution of capitalism and in particular how enterprises and all economic actors may better integrate performance and progress. Prof. Rangan also investigates the political sociology of discrimination of foreign transnational firms and these firms’ non-market strategies.

About Professor Rangan

Professor Rangan’s current scholarship was inspired by a paradox he discovered when considering the global economic system: how can the same system that delivers tremendous prosperity be the source of so much individual and social anxiety? Why and how is it that the economy is doing so well while people are not doing well? To investigate and address these challenging questions, Prof. Rangan founded the Society for Progress, a fellowship of eminent philosophers, social scientists, and business leaders that examines and evaluates the economic system’s ability to at once generate prosperity while creating opportunities for corporations and executives to render harm. By bringing together leading thinkers in the fields of political, moral, and social philosophy, economics, sociology, psychology, and business, Prof. Rangan’s Society for Progress looks to theoretical frameworks, applied practice, and lived experience to shape the economic system to better integrate fairness, well-being, and nature.

“The Pareto Trap: How Fairness Got Sacrificed at the Altar of Efficiency and How We Might Resurrect It”

In his lecture, Rangan explored various systems that society constructed to regulate social interdependence: the biosystem; the cultural system; the economic system; and the political system. We have, claims Rangan, lost our trust in the economic system because we see it as unfair. Through the course of his talk, Rangan expressed optimism as he considered ways that we might resurrect fairness to regain trust in the economic system to promote progress in terms of both prosperity and social well-being.

Co-Sponsorship & Collaborations

This event was co-sponsored by The Altman Program in International Studies & Business, The A.B. Freeman School of Business’ Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and 89.9 WWNO.

The Public Lecture Series: A Platform for Thought Leadership

The Public Lecture Series, hosted by The Murphy Institute’s Center for Ethics, serves as a vital platform for intellectual exchange. It brings together scholars and practitioners from a broad range of intellectual and professional disciplines and concerned citizens to engage with pressing ethical questions. Professor Rangan’s work at the intersection of business, economics, political and moral philosophy, sociology and psychology is critical to advancing global, interdisciplinary conversations on economic prosperity, fairness, and well-being. The Center for Ethics public lectures are free and open to the public.

WATCH THE LECTURE