Managing ethical risk: How investing in ethics adds value

Abstract In September 1999, the University of Notre Dame hosted a conference entitled “Measuring and Managing Ethical Risk: How Investing in Ethics Adds Value”. The motivations for hosting the conference and the papers presented there are summarized. Several themes that are present in the papers are discussed. These include the gains from combining the anthropological approach to business ethics with the neoclassical economics approach, the central role of trust in business ethics, the role of ethics in the corporation, and the function of the legal system in setting and enforcing ethical standards for the financial system.