Alexander Andersson

About Alexander Andersson

Background

Doctoral student in practical philosophy.

Research

My research is part of the Financial Ethics Research Group and focuses mainly on the concept of desert and just pay theories.

Ever since the financial crisis in 2008 there has been a lot of debates and public outcry over the executive remuneration practices of Wall Street. Some have criticized the pay practices based on the disproportionate amount that the executives receive in comparison to average rank-and-file workers. Others argue that it is not about the figures, rather, the problem is that such compensation packages incentivize excessive risk-taking (which in turn can be seen as one of the cornerstones of the crisis). On the other hand, there has also been debates on how the executives get paid, namely, most of them got and are still getting massive bonuses for simply doing their job.

In my research I ask whether payouts such as the ones above can be deserved in any sense. First of all, this requires an understanding of what it is to deserve economic rewards. One can ask whether it is closely connected to the idea of moral desert or if it is sui generis. Second, one can ask whether it is intelligible to compare executive compensation with that of rank-and-file workers since they seem to be deserving of their pay on different grounds. Lastly, there are questions on what kind of interventions that are reasonable to pursue if one finds that executives are undeserving of their financial gains. Should there be maximum wages and, if so, in what form?

Teaching

FP1100: History of moral philosophy (together with Petra Andersson)

LIB131 Quadrivium: Människan och naturen (Ethics)