ECON 4270 Distributive Justice 2011 Lecture 9 Deserts, merit, responsibility

Transcription

1 ECON 4270 Distributive Justice 2011 Lecture 9 Deserts, merit, responsibility Hilde Bojer hbojer@econ.uio.no April 14, 2011

2 Responsibility The fruit of our labours Deserts Children and women in theories of social justice

3 Responsibility Responsibility 3 We should be take responsibility for our choices Dworkin: endowment insensitive, ambition sensitive Roemer: economic equality if circumstances for which we are not responsible but inequality when we are responsible Problem: can we separate choice from circumstance? The result of choice for which you should be held responsible may depend on external circumstances

4 Responsibility An experiment 4 Alexander Cappelen, Bertil Tungodden, Ingvild Almås and others Working at NHH: Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen Several experiments trying to find out people s ideas of justice and fairness The majority of people find it fair to reward effort

5 Responsibility An experiment 5 Cappelen et al 2006: Pointer on our webpage The participants were students and alumni of NHH The participants typed in the text of a government document. They could choose how long they would work A randomly chosen price was assigned to each correctly typed word. The value of their output was determined by working hours productivity price

6 Responsibility 6 The participants were then randomly divided into pairs, to decide how their combined product should be divided They were separated, and interacted only by computer They would be influenced both by self-interest and by sense of fairness Object of experiment: finding the responsibility cut 1. Strict egalitarian: divide output equally 2. Choice egalitarian: divide according to working hours 3. Meritocratic: divide according to working hours and productivity 4. Libertarian: divide according to value of output

7 Responsibility 7 Strictly egalitarian: assigning no responsibility: 18 per cent Choice egalitarian: assigning responsibility for effort only (working hours): 5 per cent Meritocrat: assigning responsibility for effort and productivity: 47 per cent Libertarian: assigning responsibility for total value of product 30 per cent

8 Responsibility Responsibility 8 The consequences of our choices are to a great extent determined by the society we live in Example: the decision to have children or not have children

9 The fruit of our labours Thefruit of our labours 9 Nozick, Smith and Ricardo, Marx: we have a right to keep what we produce They also maintain that the product can be identified Dworkin: If external resources are fairly distributed to begin with Rawls: economic surplus is due to the existence of society and cannot be traced back to single persons or groups

10 The fruit of our labours The fruits of labour 10 We have the right to the fruits of our labour Goes back to John Locke and David Hume, British philosophers of the enlightenment Should be understood as enlightenment critique of feudalism Peasants had to give up parts of their crop to the aristocracy (landowners) Sometimes also forced labour (corvée) It was easy to observe direct that the fruits of their labour was taken from them

11 The fruit of our labours 11 And remember Adam Smith: The landlords reap where they did not sow

12 The fruit of our labours The fruits of labour 12 In a modern industrialised economy: The fruit cannot be directly observed But assume the fruit garden of chapter 3: and consider the responsibility break

13 The fruit of our labours 13 Free choice Ownership of natural resources Ownership of capital Human capital (education) Talents Chance

14 The fruit of our labours 14 The problem of value: The fruit depends not only one the physical amount but on the value (what others are willing to pay)

15 The fruit of our labours 15 PAUSE FOR DIAGRAMS

16 The fruit of our labours The problem of value 16 Problem of just price goes at least back to the middle ages and scholastics was to some extent also treated by the classical economists Labour theory of value: Smith, Ricardo, Marx

17 The fruit of our labours 17 Modern economists (neo-classical): analyse prices from the point of view of efficiency. But the efficient price does not necessarily give a just distribution of income Unless you are a libertarian

18 Deserts Deserts 18 Important and widespread intuition: effort deserves a reward. Experiments indicate that a majority wants income to increase with working hours Rawls: Even the willingness to make an effort may be a result of upbringing and social background

19 Deserts Deserts- Merit 19 Reward according to desert can mean - according to effort according to result Merit= effort + talent Meritocracy : reward according to result

20 Deserts 20 Reminder: If you want economic equality, excepting rewards for work, advocate equal wages plus suitable income for non-workers

21 Deserts Talent 21 Talents are not deserved. Result of genes and social background More commonly: we own our talent and deserve rewards for them Self-ownership But what is a talent? An endowment that is recognised by the society you live in.

22 Deserts 22 Example: talent for music Bach died poor Talent for sport: tennis players, football players, nordic skiing Talents of women?

23 Deserts 23 Do not confuse Reward due to merit a moral claim and reward as incentive a practical matter

24 Deserts 24 This whole lecture has concerned economically active people who produce either for their own consumption or for the market (exchange with other producers) What about everyone else?

25 Children and women in theories of social justice WHY? Why a special lecture on women and children Are they not covered by existing theories and concepts?