Calendrier du 23 octobre 2018
Paris Trade Seminar
Du 23/10/2018 de 14:30 à 16:00
MSE - 106 boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris - Room 6th floor
FELBERMAYR Gabriel (Munich)
Rules of Origin and the Profitability of Trade Deflection
écrit avec Feodora Teti and Erdal Yalcin
Du 23/10/2018 de 12:30 à 13:30
Salle R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
Applied Economics Lunch Seminar
Du 23/10/2018 de 12:30 à 13:30
Salle R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
SEGAL Paul (KCL )
Inequality as Entitlements over Labour
The study of economic inequality is fundamentally concerned with differing entitlements over goods and services. Economists of inequality have neglected a different aspect of economic inequality discussed by social commentators at least since Rousseau: that it also implies that one person is entitled to command the labour of another person for their own consumption purposes. I call this inequality as entitlements over labour. I propose a measure called the service ratio, which calculates the extent to which the rich can afford to buy the labour of their compatriots. Unlike standard measures of economic inequality the service ratio is not welfarist, but instead has its normative basis in the economic relations between people. I estimate service ratios in a selection of countries over time, and illustrate the relationship between this measure and standard measures of inequality. Beyond its normative interpretation, I argue that inequality as entitlements over labour is salient in two dimensions. First, it is sociologically salient because the ability to employ domestic service is essential to conceptions of upper middle class lifestyles. Relatedly, it has also underpinned rising female labour market participation. Second, it is politically salient because the extent of domination through command over labour is a zero-sum game between the rich and the non-rich.