Freedom justice: Inequality in equivalent liberty and its efficient minimization

The most general and central principle of social and economic optimality and justice is shown to be equal freedom. The standard and central case is that of freedom valued for the choice it permits. Allocations abiding by this principle are characterized, with the main structures of constraints and possibilities and the main alternatives as regards the corresponding entitlements and accountabilities. When such first best equal freedom is not possible or cannot be efficient or in the core, second-best freedom egalitarian principles are defined, notably in the category of freedom maximins. These solutions rest on the properties of freedom comparisons and of freedom-ordered allocations.

The Economics of Reciprocity, Giving and Altruism

Macmillan International Economic Association Series October 2000 400 pages Description: Reciprocity is a pervasive type of social interaction in encounters, groups and organizations. Simple giving is one of the major ways of transferring goods. And others regarding social sentiments, play crucial roles in the working and in the quality of society. This volume gathers basic recent works in its main domains such as, among others, the theory of reciprocity, the public economics of transfers, the economics of the family, charities, gifts of organs, or the motivations for gift-giving. It constitutes a landmark in this rapidly expanding field of research. Read PDF sample chapter: http://www.palgrave.com/catalogue/catalogue.asp?Title_Id=0333747690

Three (Potential) Pillars of Transnational Economic Justice: The Bretton Woods Institutions as Guarantors of Global Equal Treatment and Market Completion

This essay aims to bring two important lines of inquiry and criticism together. It first lays out an institutionally enriched account of what a just world economic order will look like. That account prescribes, via the requisites to that mechanism which most directly instantiate the account, three realms of equal treatment and market completion - the global products, services, and labor markets; the global investment/financial markets; and the global preparticipation opportunity allocation. The essay then suggests how, with minimal if any departure from familiar canons of traditional international legal mandate interpretation, each of the Bretton Woods institutions - particularly the GATT/WTO and the IMF - can be viewed at least in part as charged with the task of fostering equal treatment and ultimate market completion within one of those three realms. The piece then argues that one of the institutions in particular - the World Bank - has, for reasons of at best negligent and at worst willful injustice on the part of influential state actors in the world community, fallen farthest short in pursuit of what should be viewed as its proper mandate. The article accordingly concludes that a fuller empowerment of the Bank to effect its ideal mission will press the Bretton Woods system more nearly into ethical balance, and with it the world into justice; and that full empowerment of the GATT/WTO and IMF should be partly conditioned upon the fuller empowerment of the Bank

La grande crise de 1974

This paper analyses the present world economic crisis from 1973 to 1976. The 1974 great slump is the result of the strong and simultaneous deflationary policies adopted by all large western countries in order to fight inflation, which reached a very high peak in 1973. The causes of this importance and simultaneity in price increase are analysed. Most of them are aspects of the international monetary system, either events which happened at the end of the former (Bretton Woods) regime and also caused this end, or traits of the new regime of managed flexibility. The increase in prices of raw materials plays only a secondary role. A number of these causes are themselves consequences of the central structure of modern capitalism, the dynamics of the inflation activity relationship in an economy of imperfect markets and government stabilization policiesKolm Serge-Christophe. La grande crise de 1974. In: Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations. 32ᵉ année, N. 4, 1977. pp. 815-823

Positions de classe sur les variations de prix ou effets de l' « Europe verte » ou du « Kennedy Round » sur la distribution des revenus

This paper studies the effects of variations of products' prices on factors' prices and income distribution. The direction of these effects can be known only by specifiying the relevant characteristics of the structure of the economy. There is a case where these directions can be known and which is very useful for the present problems of trade liberalization of agricultural products in Europe, as well as for other economies with a dual agriculture which consists of two sectors : one traditional and labor intensive, the other one modernized and capital intensive. The simple model has the three traditional factors — land, capital and labor — , and three sectors : industry which uses capital and labor but very little land, traditional agriculture which uses land and labor but little capital, advanced agriculture which uses land and capital but relatively little labor. This suffices to determine the direction of the effects of product prices variations on factor prices. If all agricultural prices vary together relatively to industrial prices, the directions of the effects on wages and profits — which are always opposite — depend upon which of traditional or modern agriculture has the highest relative share of land in its costs. Then the effect of product prices variations on real incomes is studied : the factor price elasticity must be diminished by the product's relative share in the class' (the factor's owners) consumption. Finally, orders of magnitude and numerical examples are given for the case of present-day Europe.Le sujet ]e plus célèbre de l'Economie politique est l'effet des prix des produits sur les prix des facteurs — et donc sur la distribution du revenu entre les classes sociales. C'est toujours un problème d'une importance capitale. Que peut-on dire de général à son sujet, ne serait-ce qu'en économie qualitative, c'est-à-dire concernant les sens des variations seulement ? Le modèle d'équilibre général permet théoriquement de le résoudre, mais c'est largement une boite vide : il donne très peu de résultats si sa structure n'est pas spécifiée plus avant. Or l'une de ces structures, semi-agrégée (trois facteurs et trois produits), est très courante et donne des conclusions extrêmement importantes. C'est celle où il y a trois secteurs : une industrie, une agriculture pauvre et une agriculture moderne, qui utilisent, respectivement, la première du capital et du travail mais très peu de terre, la seconde de la terre et du travail mais peu de capital, la troisième de la terre et du capital mais relativement peu de main- d'œuvre. Cette structure suffit à déterminer sans ambiguïté les directions des effets des variations des prix des produits sur ceux des facteurs. Si tous les prix agricoles varient ensemble relativement aux prix industriels, les directions des effets sur les salaires et les profits sont toujours opposées l'une de l'autre, et elles dépendent de ce que la part relative de la terre dans les coûts est plus grande pour telle des deux agricultures que pour l'autre. On étudie ensuite l'effet des prix des produits sur les revenus réels : l'élasticité du prix d'un facteur à celui d'un produit doit être diminuée de la part relative de celui-ci dans la consommation de la classe sociale correspondante. Enfin, on donne des ordres de grandeur et des exemples numériques pour le cas de l'Europe actuelle.Kolm Serge-Christophe. Positions de classe sur les variations de prix ou effets de l' « Europe verte » ou du « Kennedy Round » sur la distribution des revenus. In: Revue économique, volume 22, n°2, 1971. pp. 306-330