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  5. Engaging with the Idea of a Just World: Institutions, Economics, Ethics and Gender
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Engaging with the Idea of a Just World: Institutions, Economics, Ethics and Gender

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (CST)

Marriott Riverwalk, Bonham
Hosted By: Association for Evolutionary Economics
  • Chair: Felipe Almeida, Federal University of Paraná

Evolution of the Notion of a “Just World”: Ethics and Economics in the 21st Century

Felipe Almeida
,
Federal University of Paraná

Abstract

To establish the meaning of a “just world” is a complex task as it considers both ethical and moral issues. Hence, a “just world” is associated with a belief system of what is understood as right, wrong, desirable, or undesirable. Several institutionalists rely on the study of the ethics of the economic system to analyze the notion of a “just world,” among them, Clarence Ayres is highlighted.
This study investigates two different but related subjects: (1) The ethics behind the current mainstream in economics, an update to Ayres’s perspective by updating the notion of mainstream. (2) How the belief system that support notion of a “just world” evolved through time and how it can evolve in the future. The relationship between (1) and (2) is also introduced.

Realizing a Just World from Institutional Economics of John R. Commons: Through a Consideration of Authoritative Transactions in Legal Foundations of Capitalism and Rationing Transactions in Institutional Economics

Shingo Takahashi
,
Tokyo College of Transport Studies

Abstract

How can we achieve a “just world” where unfair and unjust transactions do not take place? In the Legal Foundations of Capitalism (LFC), Commons explored the realization of a just world by “securing the correlation” between rights and duties and “stabilizing expectations” through authoritative transactions since the rights and duties of parties do not coincide in unauthorized transactions. On the other hand, rationing transactions in Institutional Economics (IE) contained various content. In this paper, we reclassify rationing transactions into three categories: "Despotic" rationing transactions, "Democratic" rationing transactions, and Rationing transactions "creating reasonable value." Among them, we believe that Commons explored the realization of a just world through rationing transactions “creating reasonable value.”

An Agenda For a Democratic Economy

David Cayla
,
University of Angers

Abstract

The art of governance requires managers to make “good” decisions that align with accepted standards. Today, the central standard of management is to evaluate the costs and benefits of each option to demonstrate that the selected choice is objectively “good” – with benefits outweighing costs. This approach is prevalent in any decision-making structure where someone makes choices on behalf of others, be it a company, public administration, or non-profit organization.

This norm is fundamental to contemporary capitalism, but it is grounded in another institution: the market. According to the neoliberal doctrine, the market’s primary function is not as an exchange platform but as a price-creating device (Cayla 2023). This understanding of the market is rooted in the late 19th-century neoclassical framework and was introduced into the public discourse by Ludwig Von Mises’ contributions to socialism (Mises 1920, 1922). For Mises, the market mechanism is indispensable for calculating the real value of goods, necessitating private ownership of the means of production. Eugene Fama, fifty years later, held a similar view, stating that “the ideal is a market in which prices provide accurate signals for the allocation of resources” (Fama 1970: 383).

However, this norm appears less applicable to contemporary challenges. The subprime crisis of 2008 and the eurozone crisis (2010-2015) illustrated that market prices can disappear or reach levels that jeopardize the economy. Central banks have had to manipulate market prices, such as long-term interest rates, via quantitative easing measures.

Other emerging problems, such as the growing scarcity of natural resources, may not be resolved by price signals. More fundamentally, environmental issues such as global warming will force decision-makers to consider other dimensions in collective choices than the standard cost/benefit calculation based on short-term market prices.

The market's strength as an institutional device is that it “naturalizes” the price system and places it beyond the political sphere. This makes prices acceptable to all parties. However, managing scarce resources may require considering the various possible uses and users of such resources, necessitating the re-introduction of politics into the value calculation process. This would push decisions towards a path that has been previously and collectively decided.

This contribution intends to discuss the requirements for such a post-neoliberal doctrine and how to integrate democratic elements into the assessment process of economic decisions.

References
Cayla, David (2023) The Decline and Fall of Neoliberalisme. Rebuilding the Economy in an Age of Crises, London and New York: Routledge.
Fama, Eugene (1970), “Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work”, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 25, No. 2: 383–417.
Mises, Ludwig von (1920) [1990], Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, trans. S. Adler, Auburn, AL: Mises Institute.
Mises, Ludwig von (1922) [1951], Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Transgender Stratification Economics: Empirical Evaluation of Intersectional Effects in the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey

Robert Haggar
,
Colorado State University

Abstract

With data from the 2015 US Transgender Survey, this research project seeks to determine the material conditions of transgender individuals in the United States and seeks to do so through an intersectional lens. In so doing, the work will provide meaningful summary statistics of economic conditions experienced by transgender individuals in the United States compared to local averages with careful attention to the interaction between identity forms, extend existing methods of material analysis to understand the social position of transgender individuals in the reproduction of capitalism and social domination common in the United States and attempt to formulate a materialist and intersectional stratification economics capable of grappling with the complexity of group formation and economic impact across a complex combination of social differences.

Social Security and Gender Inequality: The Role of Federal Policy for Women’s Rights

Liudmila Malyshava
,
Skidmore College
B. Oakley McCoy
,
University of New England

Abstract

This inquiry examines the role of federal policy on gender inequality using the Original Institutional framework. Specifically, the authors assert that the Social Security program, though exclusive at its inception in 1935, has undergone the process of significant institutional adjustment and it plays a determining role in providing the appropriate institutional space for not only increasing economic security for older women, but also for reducing gender inequality overall.
Due to the exclusion of professions primarily occupied by women, the original Social Security program reinforced gender inequality by disproportionately benefiting [white] men. While there were multiple improvements to the program in the second half of the 20th century that allowed it to gain an equalizing power, this essay advocates for the need of further institutional adjustment in the face of the raging crisis of reproductive rights and, by extension, women’s rights in general. The paper concludes that an improved Social Security program targeting women more effectively can not only improve poverty and inequality levels, but also indirectly contribute to women’s empowerment by allowing freedom of choices, decision-making, and opportunities through an improved intergenerational net worth position.

Role of China in the Transition of Globalization: Fostering or Preventing A More Just and Stable World?

Ricardo C.S. Siu
,
University of Macau

Abstract

Despite the success of globalization in promoting the volume of international trade and investment and technological advancements since the mid-twentieth century, its adverse impacts on social justice and stability have received little attention from advocates like governments and multinational corporations (as per John Kenneth Galbraith 2002, 6-7). In this paper, I examine the changing role and influences of China in the course of globalization and its current transition through an analytical framework of institutional change proposed by Paul Dale Bush (1987).I conclude that whether the current transition may actually lead to a progressive institutional change, hence fostering a more just and stable international society will not only be premised on the tug-of-war between China and the existing world powers, but most importantly, dependent on whether the real and sustained compatibility of China’s economic culture with other societies could be instituted.
JEL Classifications
  • B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches
  • P1 - Capitalist Economies