Inequality as Lack of Co-operation in Economic Thought

Monica Hernandez

No 1718, Working Papers from New School for Social Research, Department of Economics

Abstract: This study is about the notion of co-operation by economic thinkers of the 19th century in the United Kingdom. It presents a comparison and contrast of their ideas as well as an analysis of the relationship between co-operation and economic and social inequality. Two approaches of such relationship are identified. First, an economic-centered view, found in Charles Babbage and William Stanley Jevons, where the benefits of co-operation are linked to profit sharing, the increase of productivity and the expansion of the economic system. Second, Robert Owen’s and John Stuart Mill’s ideas on co-operation, even though with different implications, are mainly socially-oriented. Here, it is possible to see a broader social concern that led them to suggest reforms that could have implications in terms of social (e.g., education and gender), and not only economic inequality. Marx’s analysis of co-operation does not belong to any of these approaches. In his view, under capitalism, the effect of some forms of co-operation may generate or reinforce inequality.

Keywords: Co-operation; inequality; Robert Owen; Charles Babbage; William Stanley Jevons; John Stuart Mill; Karl Marx; profit sharing; co-operatives; associations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B1 B19 B3 B30 D6 D63 J5 J50 J51 J52 J53 J54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2017-05, Revised 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/econ/2017/NSSR_WP_182017.pdf First version, 2017 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:new:wpaper:1718

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