Secrets structure our social lives. They allow us to shape our identity, to protect
our innermost selves, and to avoid shame, humiliation, judgment, and influence. There
can be no question that secrecy is an essential attribute of modern social life (Adut, 2018;
Bok, 1989; Goffman, 1959; Jones, 2014). But what of our economic lives? This
dissertation aims to shed light on the ethics of secrecy in economic life, both for
managers of large firms and for individuals within markets. It is the first to inquire
directly into the moral theory of secrecy in commercial contexts as it intersects with
concepts from business ethics, organizational theory, legal theory, and normative political
economy.
Essay 1 addresses a range of theoretical issues in secrecy, transparency, and moral
theory. Essay 2 considers a particular contested case of corporate secrecy-pay secrecy.
This essay's applied discussion also generates several additional insights for a more
general ethics of corporate secrecy and self-regulation. Essay 3 shifts away from the
corporate perspective toward the generic market actor's perspective, investigating the
moral-economic justifications we may have for refusing to transact with certain other
actors in markets. It also illustrates why more secrecy will in some cases be a morally
beneficial feature of markets.
