Bringing the social structure back in: a rents-based approach to inequality

Motivated by a perceived lacuna in theoretical discussions on income inequality, this paper explores an approach based on the place in that inequality of economic rents. Although widely recognized as a subject to be considered in relation to inequality, rents are still failing to receive a conceptually and theoretically unified treatment. In fact, although accepted as an element in the distribution branch of economics, economic rents have been subject to a somewhat incomplete treatment, especially when it comes to understanding the origin in wealth ownership. This blind spot invites cross-disciplinary collaboration as a means of elucidation. So, in this paper, I review and systematize scattered conceptual and theoretical contributions on the subject drawn from the literatures of both economics and sociology. Briefly, while economics delineates the market phenomenon giving rise to rents, sociology sheds light on the influence of background social structure on both the supply and demand blades of the ‘market scissor’. This is to some extent reminiscent of Marx’s class struggle analysis; but Marx’s original view is amplified by the sociological perspectives I review here, as the latter identify and conceptualize rents earned by labour in addition to those earned by capital. Two ideas that sprang from my reading of the sociological perspectives should be placed at the very core of a rents-based approach to inequalities. The first is that the normal functioning of markets does not make economic rents disappear; the second is that all earnings are relative, so that rents, including negative rents, are a vital part of everyone’s remuneration in contemporary capitalist economies. An outline of a rents-based theory of inequality is proposed and normative and policy consequences of undertaking this move are hinted at

A Lógica da Situação da Economia

O objetivo deste artigo é, em primeiro lugar, identificar o ingrediente metodológico que permite uma integração da explicação econômica e da sociológica no continente mais abrangente das ciências sociais. Este ingrediente é a noção de lógica situacional ; ela é elaborada como uma particular aplicação do conceito de Verstehen, da sociologia interpretativa. Será argumentado, em segundo lugar, que esta noção pode também oferecer o princípio de racionalidade econômica abrangente dentro do qual a concepção de racionalidade como maximização consistente de uma função objetivo é apenas um caso particular. Esta última conclusão contrasta com a proposição de Gary Becker de que a escolha racional é o princípio de racionalidade abrangente que confere inteligibilidade à ação social humana.Sociologia, Lógica Situacional, Escolha Racional, Princípio de Racionalidade

INDIVIDUALISMO INTERATIVO

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the elements for a new kind of methodological individualism - 'interactive individualism' - in Friedrich Hayek's work. This departs from conventional rational choice oriented ideas of methodological individualism in two mains respects. The first has to do with turning the knowledge conditions a problem in its own right, to be sorted out in the process of understanding the social coordination. The second refers to the very unit of analysis which cannot be isolated individuals, taken as given, but 'interacting individuals' instead.

Os Sentimentos Morais da Riqueza das Nações - Progresso e Pobreza na Economia Política Clássica

The debate on the alleged moral and political benefits of infant capitalism - as worked out in the now classical pieces by Louis Dumont, Pierre Rosanvallon and Albert Hirschman - concludes with the identification of a justification for the new order based on its expected positive effects on international peace and social coordination. Adam Smith represents a climax in the sequence of ideas to the extent that he shows how economic interdependence of a typical market economy would solve the problem of social coordination. However, given the salience of the “social question” in the birth of modern political economy, it seems plausible to conceive of social stability as being more robust the more socially fair the order appears to be. In fact, the specific contribution of this article is to demonstrate that, Smith does weave, in the distributive chapters of the Wealth of the Nations, a normative justification for capitalism based on the notion that it can generate a social order, not only congruent but also socially just.Adam Smith, Questão Distributiva, Economia Política Clássica

Liberdade, libertariana e igualitarista

Neste ensaio, a liberdade é abordada por meio de uma conversação entre a autora e pensadores que, no século vinte, exerceram influência marcante sobre o modo de enquadramento do tema, indicando os problemas legítimos de serem perseguidos. A seleção reflete o interesse da autora em observar se é possível por sobre o mesmo leito o amor libertariano pela liberdade individual e a paixão igualitarista pela igualdade social