Introduction to the theory of economic justice

Abstract

This article aims to conduct a conceptual and theoretical approach to economic justice in a formal but understandable way for economists and non-economists, and demonstrate its importance in the economic policy of a society. For this purpose, an analytical method was used to scrutinise the bibliographic evidence,  which  focused  on  the  qualitative  theoretical-formal  description  of  economic  justice,  and  review contributions from moral philosophy, analyzed through the use of tools economic issues focused on distributive justice. Thus, the type of economic policy that should be applied according to the accep-ted concept of justice was claified. The most relevant conclusion is that all theories of economic justice developed  to  this  day  are  built  on  the  same  schematic  structure,  which  is  composed  of  the  following  elements: the description of the context, that is, the distributive problem; the ethical criterion of distri-bution;  the  behavior  of  the  people;  and  the  distribuendum.  However,  the  concept  of  justice  is  differes  according to the theory used, which defines the type of position that economic policy will take in addres-sing the problem of economic injustice and improving social welfare.