Entrepreneurs and wage-earners: a monetary approach

Jean Cartelier

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to o¤er a logical genesis of the di¤erenci- ation of agents in two classes: capitalist entrepreneurs and wage-earners. The model presented here does not follow the Classical (or Marxian) tra- dition (where the two opposed classes are the straight consequence of the concentration of the means of production in the hands of a limited fraction of people). It does not follow mainstream economists either (no di¤erence according to general competitive equilibrium or a di¤erence taken as given in labour economics in general). Models belonging to those traditions fail to reproduce a major stylised fact: wage-earners cannot be distinguished from entrepreneurs when they are in the market for ccommodities but they radically di¤er in the 'market for labour'or in production (wage-earners do not produce for their own account but for that of entrepreneurs who get pro ts, not wages). Modern tentatives to deal with the di¤erenciation of agents (Mat- suyama for instance) explain it by a progressive di¤erenciation of the level of wealth up to a threshold which makes some agents able to accumulate and others not. We propose a di¤erent view based on the process of issuance of money. If a fraction of agents have not a direct access to that process they cannot act in the market for their own account. The alternatives they have are limited to autarky or to work for the account of those who have addi- tional alternatives due to their direct access to money (to be independent producers or entrepreneurs hiring wage-earners). The model makes explicit the necessary and su¢ cient conditions for the existence of an E-equilibrium in which co-exist heterogeneous agents (entrepreneurs and wage-earners) starting from a population homogeneous except for bank rationing. These reasonable conditions are: an e¢ cient monetary system, a su¢ cient gap between productivity of production in mass compared to other types and a possibility to induce wage-earners to work signi cantly more than they would as free producers. A non-Marxian notion of exploitation is suggested to conclude.

Date: 2014-04-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01285287
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