Title: What COVID-19 demonstrates: on the limits of self-interested behaviour, capitalism, and the role of solidarity

Authors: Lia Alexandra Baltador; Ioana Negru

Addresses: Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Calea Dumbravii, No.17, 550324, Sibiu, Romania ' Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Calea Dumbravii, No.17, 550324, Sibiu, Romania

Abstract: This paper raises systemic questions about capitalism and questions the role that self-interest played in the economy and society and also as a fundamental principle in the economics discipline. This article puts forward the possibility and importance of solidarity in building cohesion in our communities and helping the economic and social recovery globally. The authors advocate that economists should pay more attention to the economics of solidarity, a sub-discipline that can bring a paradigm shift in the way we conceptualise the individual behaviour in economics and could inform respectively the policy-makers on the significance of solidarity as a building stone for a future and better society.

Keywords: COVID-19; self-interest; economics of solidarity; capitalism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2021.118147

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2021 Vol.12 No.1, pp.50 - 54

Received: 02 Feb 2021
Accepted: 05 Jun 2021
Published online: 13 Oct 2021 *

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