Objective
Concerns about the fairness of market transactions lie at the heart of today’s pressing challenges in economic governance. Modern economies depend on markets not only to allocate resources efficiently, but also in ways perceived as fair, voluntary, and legitimate. Yet across sectors—from pharmaceuticals and finance to digital platforms and labor—citizens question transactions that are perceived as manipulative and to generate unequal gains and decrease overall welfare. Fair Markets breaks new ground by offering the first unified empirical framework for understanding how people judge the fairness and moral legitimacy of voluntary market transactions. It shifts the focus of fairness research from distributive outcomes to the legitimacy of market exchanges, opening an entirely new frontier for studying market legitimacy and for rethinking the moral foundations of fairness research by linking two insights from behavioral economics—people care about unfairness, and firms exploit predictable biases. The project introduces a novel conceptual model—the EFF model—where individuals evaluate transactions by three normative principles: Efficiency, Freedom, and Fairness. It combines incentivized experiments, survey vignettes, open-ended reasoning, and panel and register data. Three components structure the research: (1) experiments identify when transactions are judged unfair or exploitative; (2) a large-scale Norwegian panel traces how moral views form, evolve, and shape behavior using administrative registers; (3) a global survey in 60+ countries maps variation in fairness views and introduces the Global Fair Markets Index, which compares citizens’ policy attitudes to actual consumer protection frameworks. At its core, Fair Markets rests on a simple idea: markets remain legitimate only if they align with public moral views. Building on this premise, the project delivers the first empirical foundation for rethinking the moral legitimacy of markets today.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
N-5045 Bergen
Norway
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.