Freedom, Servitude and Voluntary Labor

We present an economic framework to revisit and reframe some important debates over the nature of free versus unfree labor and the economic consequences of emancipation. We use a simple general equilibrium model in which labor can be either free or coerced and where land and labor will be exchanged on markets that can be competitive or manipulated or via other non-market collusive arrangements. By working with variants of the same basic model under different assumptions about initial economy-wide factor endowments and asset ownership we can compare equilibrium distributional outcomes under different institutional and contractual arrangements including markets with free labor and free tenancy, slavery, and tenancy arrangements with tied labor-service obligations. Analysis of these different contractual and organizational forms yields insights that accord with common sense, but that are often overlooked or downplayed in academic debates, particularly amongst economists

Class dynamics of development: a methodological note

This article argues that class relations are constitutive of developmental processes and central to understanding inequality within and between countries. In doing so it illustrates and explains the diversity of the actually existing forms of class relations, and the ways in which they interplay with other social relations such as gender and ethnicity. This is part of a wider project to re- vitalise class analysis in the study of development problems and experiences

“The tribe of pundits called economists” and economic debate in post-independence India

The rise of an economics profession in post-Independence India is outlined, and something of the contribution of that profession to economic debate in India considered. The roots of the economics profession and of economic debate after 1947 are traced to the colonial era, and the institutions and the institution-builders essential to its emergence after 1947 discussed. Five “generations” of Indian economists, active both before and after 1947, are identified. Attention is drawn to the high quality of debates on the Indian economy, the high level of theoretical discourse and the quality of political economy traditions. Particular attention is paid to the remarkable contribution of the Economic Weekly/Economic and Political Weekly, and there is treatment of the relationship between the academy, on the one hand, and the state and its representatives on the other.