This article proposes replacing the narrow concept of the individual in economic analysis with the broader concept of the person and stresses the critical importance of thinking about personal development in terms of personalist capital and how that capital is acquired. Additionally, it suggests why the primary objective function should be maximizing personalist capital rather than net personal advantage. This analysis shows that maximizing net personal advantage (maximizing utility or profit) is an intermediate norm of economic performance and that maximizing personalist capital is the ultimate norm of economic performance.
Edward J. O'Boyle, "The Acting Person and Personalist Capital," Journal of Markets & Morality 15, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 89-102