Exploitation, inequality, and power

The concept of exploitation is central in social and political theory, but there is no precise, widely accepted definition. This paper analyses John Roemer’s seminal theory, which construes exploitation as a distributive injustice arising from asset inequalities, with no reference to notions of power or dominance. First, an intertemporal generalisation of Roemer’s static economies is set up and several doubts are raised on the claim that exploitation can be reduced to a kind of resource egalitarianism. Then, Roemer’s philosophical arguments that exploitation should be defined as a merely distributive concept are also questioned and it is argued that a notion of power, or dominance, is an essential part of the definition of exploitation. Finally, Roemer’s path-breaking methodological claim that standard general equilibrium models can provide robust microfoundations to exploitation and classes is critically analysed.Exploitation; inequality; power

Commodity Content in a General Input-Output Model: A Comment

This paper critically analyses the approach to the determination of values, or commodity contents, developed by Fujimoto and Opocher (2009). Even setting aside various problematic definitional issues, the broader implications of the approach for classical theory are unclear. First, the value-theoretic definitions of skill differentials and bads capture at best necessary conditions and it is unlikely that such definitions can be provided by focusing only on the technological data of the economy. Second, the approach has various interesting implications concerning the relation between productivity and exploitation that directly contradict some of the authors' claims.Value, Bads, Skilled and Unskilled Labour, Productivity and Exploitation

Goodwin cycles and the U.S. economy, 1948-2004

This paper provides empirical support for an interpretation of the Goodwin growth cycle as isolating the main forces underlying distributive conflict, but in a fragile symbiotic mechanism because of endogenous forces that modify the balance of class power. Goodwin cycles are the shorter run cycles that appear around a long run motion that is the product of structural change. The paper describes long run trends in the Goodwin variables in the US corporate economy from 1948 to 2004, which exhibit both a sharp break at the beginning of the 80s, and no long run cycles. Short run detrended Goodwin cycles are identified, which broadly coincide in period and timing with the NBER dating of (the troughs of) business cycles. The paper then divides the employed nonfarm private industry labour force into supervisory and nonsupervisory workers, and focuses on the latter. The same two conclusions apply.Goodwin growth cycle, wage share, US economy

Exploitation and productiveness: the generalised commodity exploitation theorem once again

In a recent contribution on this journal, Matsuo (2009) has provided an interesting argument to refute the Generalised Commodity Exploitation Theorem (GCET), by highlighting a potential asymmetry between labour and other commodities. In this paper, a novel characterisation of the relation between exploitation and productiveness that is at the heart of the GCET is proved. This result is interesting per se, because it is weaker and more general than the standard GCET. But, owing to the rigorous specification of all the relevant conditions, it also clarifies the structure of Matsuo’s argument, and its dubious theoretical features. It is also argued that, even if Matsuo’s formal argument were deemed convincing, a revised version of the GCET can be proved, which reinstates the symmetry between labour and other commodities in the standard Leontief setting.Value; exploitation; Generalised Commodity Exploitation Theorem.

Liberal Egalitarianism and the Harm Principle

This paper analyses Rawls's celebrated difference principle, and its lexicographic extension, in societies with a finite and an infinite number of agents. A unified framework of analysis is set up, which allows one to characterise Rawlsian egalitarian principles by means of a weaker version of a new axiom - the Harm Principle - recently proposed by [12]. This is quite surprising, because the Harm principle is meant to capture a liberal requirement of noninterference and it incorporates no obvious egalitarian content. A set of new characterisations of the maximin and of its lexicographic refinement are derived, including in the intergenerational context with an infinite number of agents.Difference principle, Leximin, Weak harm principle, Infinite utility streams

Exploitation and Profits: A General Axiomatic Approach in Convex Economies with Heterogeneous Agents

This paper provides an innovative axiomatic analysis of the notion of exploitation as the unequal exchange of labour. General convex economies with heterogeneous agents endowed with unequal amounts of physical and human capital are considered. An axiomatic characterisation of the class of definitions that satisfy a weak domain condition and the profit-exploitation correspondence principle (PECP) is derived. It is shown that none of the main received definitions preserves the PECP. Instead, a novel definition is presented which satisfies the PECP and allows one to generalise a number of key insights of exploitation theory to complex advanced economies.Exploitation, convex economies, heterogeneous agents, New Interpretation

Exploitation as the Unequal Exchange of Labour: An Axiomatic Approach

In subsistence economies with general convex technology and rational optimising agents, a new, axiomatic approach is developed, which allows an explicit analysis of the core positive and normative intuitions behind the concept of exploitation. Three main new axioms, called Labour Exploitation in Subsistence Economies, Relational Exploitation, and Feasibility of Non-Exploitation, are presented and it is proved that they uniquely characterise a definition of exploitation conceptually related to the so-called “New-Interpretation” (Dumenil, 1980; Foley, 1982; Dumenil at el., 2009), which focuses on the unequal distribution of (and control over) social labour, and on individual well-being freedom and the self-realisation of men. Then, the main results of Roemer’s (1982, 1988) classical approach and all the crucial insights of exploitation theory are generalised, proving that every agent’s class and exploitation status emerges in the competitive equilibrium, that there is a correspondence between an agent’s class and exploitation status, and that the existence of exploitation is inherently linked to the existence of positive profits.Justice, Exploitation, Class, Convex Economies

Exploitation of Labour and Exploitation of Commodities: a “New Interpretation”

In the standard Okishio-Morishima approach, the existence of profits is proved to be equivalent to the exploitation of labour. Yet, it can also be proved that the existence of profits is equivalent to the ‘exploitation’ of any good. Labour and commodity exploitation are just different numerical representations of the productiveness of the economy. This paper presents an alternative approach to exploitation theory which is related to the New Interpretation (Duménil 1980; Foley 1982). In this approach, labour exploitation captures unequal social relations among producers. The equivalence between the existence of profits and labour exploitation holds, whereas it is proved that there is no relation between profits and commodity ‘exploitation’.Exploitation, Profits, Generalised Commodity Exploitation Theorem, New Interpretation

The temporal single-system interpretation: underdetermination and inconsistency

This paper critically evaluates a recent contribution by Kliman and Freeman (2009). It is argued that none of their arguments dispel previous criticisms of the temporal single system interpretation�(TSSI). Indeed the paper confirms the suggestions of many critics that, as the missing parts of the TSSI theoretical constructs are provided, in particular the Monetary Expression of Labour Time, the TSSI rests on inconsistency and arbitrary assumptions.Value; exploitation; TSSI.