For all of their focus on asset prices, financial economists rarely ask if assets are priced ethically—that is, if their prices are compatible with the public good. Yet in a world facing major, possibly catastrophic problems—global warming, for instance, and growing inequality—it is now...

Biographical note: GollierChristian: Christian Gollier is professor of economics at the University of Toulouse and director of the Toulouse School of Economics. He is the author of "The Economics of Risk and Time" and the coauthor of "Economic and Financial Decisions under Risk" (Princeton).