Economic justice

{{essay|date=November 2023}}

{{Short description|Subcategory of welfare economics}}

{{Distinguish|Equity (economics)}}

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Economic justice is a component of social justice and welfare economics. It is a set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions, where the ultimate goal is to create an opportunity for each person to establish a sufficient material foundation upon which to have a dignified, productive, and creative life.{{Cite web |title=Economic Justice |url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/economic-justice.asp |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=Investopedia |language=en}}

File:US federal minimum wage if it had kept pace with productivity. Also, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage.png if it had kept pace with productivity. Also, the real minimum wage.]]

Justice in economics is a subcategory of social justice and welfare economics. It is a "set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions".{{Cite web|last=Hayes|first=Adam|title=Economic Justice|url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/economic-justice.asp|access-date=2021-02-03|website=Investopedia|language=en}} Economic justice aims to create opportunities for every person to have a dignified, productive and creative life that extends beyond simple economics.{{Cite web|title=On Economic Justice {{!}} SPH|url=https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2017/on-economic-justice/#:~:text=Economic%20justice%20has%20been%20defined,economics.%E2%80%9D%20Therefore,%20an%20economic|access-date=2021-02-03|website=www.bu.edu}}

Models of economic justice frequently represent the ethical-social requirements of a given theory,• Developed along more general lines in Allan Gibbard, 1990, Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198249856.do#.UPWifx1LWSo Description] and chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=qiDaZ-evhUQC&pg=PR11 links.]
   • Marc Fleurbaey, 2008. "ethics and economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_E000272&edition=current&q Abstract]. whether "in the large", as of a just social order,For example, in Barry Clark and Herbert Gintis, 1978, "Rawlsian Justice and Economic Systems," Philosophy & Public Affairs, 7(4), pp. [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2264960?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101568848421 302]-325. or "in the small", as in the equity of "how institutions distribute specific benefits and burdens".The latter is the subject of H. Peyton Young, 1994, Equity: In Theory and Practice, Princeton University Press, discussed in general terms and as quoted, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=H0IQ0PKZ4WYC&pg=PA6=false 6-7]; [http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5379.html description], [https://books.google.com/books?id=H0IQ0PKZ4WYC&pg=PR7=false preview], and [http://www.econ.jhu.edu/People/Young/scans/Equity.pdf chapter 1]{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (via scrolling). That theory may or may not elicit acceptance. In the Journal of Economic Literature classification codes 'justice' is scrolled to at JEL: D63, wedged on the same line between 'Equity' and 'Inequality' along with 'Other Normative Criteria and Measurement'. Categories above and below the line are Externalities and Altruism.• Peter J. Hammond, 1987. "altruism," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 1, pp. 85-87.
   • James Andreoni, William T. Harbaugh, and Lise Vesterlund, 2008. "altruism in experiments," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_A000240&edition=current&q=altruism&topicid=&result_number=1 Abstract].

Some ideas about justice and ethics overlap with the origins of economic thought,Joseph J. Spengler, 1980. Origins of Economic Thought and Justice. Link to 1-page chapter-content [https://www.questia.com/read/59213409 previews]. often as to distributive justice• Edmund S. Phelps, ed., 1973. Economic Justice: Selected Readings. Penguin.
   • _____, ed., 1987. "distributive justice," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 1, pp. 886-88. and sometimes as to Marxian analysis.• Norman Geras, 1985. "The Controversy about Marx and Justice," New Left Review, 150, pp. 47-85.
   • J.E.Roemer, 1987. "Marxian value analysis". The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 383-87. The subject is a topic of normative economics and philosophy and economics.• Marc Fleurbaey, 2008. [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/economic-justice/ "Economics and Economic Justice"], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
   • Daniel M. Hausman and Michael S. McPherson, 2005, 2nd Ed. Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy, Part III: Liberty, rights, equality, and justice. pp. 157-214. Drill to preview [http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511754289 extracts.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527034039/http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511754289 |date=2016-05-27 }}
   • Julian Lamont, 2007. [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/ "Distributive Justice"], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
   • Julian Le Grand, 1991. Equity and Choice: An Essay in Economics and Applied Philosophy. Chapter preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcoOAAAAQAAJ&q=Philosophy+economics links.]
   • Phillipe Mongin, 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061201121941/http://www.u-cergy.fr/IMG/2000-37.pdf "Is There Progress in Normative Economics?"], same title in Stephan Boehm, et al., eds., 2002, Is There Progress in Economics?. In early welfare economics, where mentioned, 'justice' was little distinguished from maximization of all individual utility functions or a social welfare function. As to the latter, Paul Samuelson (1947),Paul A. Samuelson, 1947. Foundations of Economic Analysis, ch. VIII ("Welfare Economics"), p. 221. expanding on work of Abram Bergson, represents a social welfare function in general terms as any ethical belief system required to order any (hypothetically feasible) social states for the entire society as "better than", "worse than", or "indifferent to" each other. Kenneth Arrow (1963) showed a difficulty of trying to extend a social welfare function consistently across different hypothetical ordinal utility functions even apart from justice.Kenneth J. Arrow, 1963. Social Choice and Individual Values, 2nd ed. Utility maximization survives, even with the rise of ordinal-utility/Pareto theory, as an ethical basis for economic-policy judgments• Jonathan Riley, 2008. "utilitarianism and economic theory," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_U000073&edition Abstract.]
   • Charles Blackorby, Walter Bossert, and David Donaldson, 2002. "Utilitarianism and the Theory of Justice," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, v. 1, ch. 11, pp. 543-596. [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574011002800157 Abstract.]
   • A.B. Atkinson, 1982. Social Justice and Public Policy. [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=6638 Description] and scroll to chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=UiZ2HdkNHBAC&dq=%22Social+Justice+and+Public+Policy%22&pg=PP1 links.]

in the wealth-maximization criterion invoked in law and economics.• Richard A. Posner, 1981. The Economics of Justice. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/POSECO.html Description] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091227083925/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/poseco.html |date=2009-12-27 }} and chapter links, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=CKEN0F07ChUC&q=%22economic+analysis+of+law%22+posner xi]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=CKEN0F07ChUC&q=%22economic+analysis+of+law%22+posner xiii.]
   • Peter J. Hammond, 1982. "The Economics of Justice and the Criterion of Wealth Maximization," Yale Law Journal, 91(7), p[https://www.jstor.org/pss/795964 p. 1493]-1507.
   • Richard Schmalbeck, 1983. "The Justice of Economics: An Analysis of Wealth Maximization as a Normative Goal," Columbia Law Review, 83(2), pp. [http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2449&context=faculty_scholarship 488-525].
   • Denis J. Brion, 2000. "Norms & Values in Law & Economics," in Encyclopedia of Law & Economics, v. 1, pp. [http://encyclo.findlaw.com/0800book.pdf 1041-1071].
   • Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell, 2003. Fairness versus Welfare: Notes on the Pareto Principle, Preferences, and Distributive Justice," Journal of Legal Studies, 32(1), pp. [http://140.247.200.140/faculty/shavell/pdf/32_J_Legal_Stud_331.pdf 331-362.]
   • A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, 2008. "law, economic analysis of," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_L000038 Abstract.]

Amartya Sen (1970),Amartya K. Sen, 1970 [1984]. Collective Choice and Social Welfare [http://www.citeulike.org/user/rlai/article/681900 (description)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501210252/http://www.citeulike.org/user/rlai/article/681900 |date=2011-05-01 }}:

:ch. 9, "Equity and Justice," pp. 131-51.

:ch. 9*, "Impersonality and Collective Quasi-Orderings," pp. 152-160. Kenneth Arrow (1983),• Kenneth J. Arrow, 1983. Collected Papers, v. 1, Social Choice and Justice. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/ARRCO1.html Description] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416150608/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/ARRCO1.html |date=2009-04-16 }}, [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/ARRCO1.html?show=contents contents] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417064345/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/ARRCO1.html?show=contents |date=2008-04-17 }}, and chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=iTgmSNjTdjUC&dq=%22Collected+Papers+of+Kenneth+J.+Arrow:+Social+choice+and+justice%22+%221+a+difficulty%22&pg=PP11 links.]
   • Amartya Sen, 1985. "Social Choice and Justice: A Review Article," Journal of Economic Literature, 23(4), pp. 1764-76. Review of Arrow, 1983. Reprinted in Sen, 2003, Rationality and Freedom, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=DaOY4DQ-MKAC&pg=PA114 325-348]. Serge-Christophe Kolm (1969, 1996, 2000),• Serge-Christophe Kolm, 1969. "The Optimal Production of Social Justice," in J. Margolis and H. Guitton (eds.), Public Economics, Macmillan.
   • _____, 1996. Modern Theories of Justice. [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8983 Description] and scroll to chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=i2Fm6Wvrrh8C links.] MIT Press.
   • _____, [1972] 2000. Justice and Equity. [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8982 Description] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010141137/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8982 |date=2012-10-10 }} & scroll to chapter-preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=HyctVz6tRbQC&q=Kolm++%22Justice+and+Equity%22 links.] MIT Press. and others have considered ways in which utilitarianism as an approach to justice is constrained or challenged by independent claims of equality in the distribution of primary goods, liberty, entitlements,• Robert Nozick, 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia.
   • John Rawls, 1971, A Theory of Justice. opportunity,• John E. Roemer, 2008 "equality of opportunity," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_E000214 Abstract].
   • _____, 1998. Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004221 Description] and scrollable [https://books.google.com/books?id=2LfA_KjvOAsC&pg=PP6 preview]. exclusion of antisocial preferences, possible capabilities,Amartya K. Sen, 1985. Commodities and Capabilities. [http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Economics/Developmental/?view=usa&ci=9780195650389 Description.] and fairness as non-envy plus Pareto efficiency.Amartya Sen, [1987] 2008. "justice," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_J000033&edition=current&q=justice&topicid=&result_number=1 Abstract.]
   • _____, 2000. "Social Justice and the Distribution of Income," in Handbook of Income Distribution, v. 1, Ch. 1, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=57nvtVnTUzIC&pg=PA59 59-85].
   • _____, 2009. The Idea of Justice, Harvard University Press. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674060470 Description] and preview [https://books.google.com/books?id=enqMd_ze6RMC&pg=PA1=gbs_v2_summary_r link.] Alternate approaches have treated combining concern for the worst off with economic efficiency, the notion of personal responsibility and (de)merits of leveling individual benefits downward, claims of intergenerational justice,Bertil Tungodden, 2008. "justice (new perspectives)," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_J000052&q=justice&topicid=&result_number=2 Abstract.] and other non-welfarist/Pareto approaches.Louis Kaplow, 2008. "Pareto principle and competing principles," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_P000315&edition=current&q= Abstract.] Justice is a subarea of social choice theory, for example as to extended sympathy,Kenneth J. Arrow, 1977. "Extended Sympathy and the Possibility of Social Choice," American Economic Review, 67(1), pp. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1815907 219]-225. and more generally in the work of Arrow,Kenneth J. Arrow, 1983. Collected Papers of Kenneth J. Arrow, v. 1, Social Choice and Justice, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iTgmSNjTdjUC&pg=PP11=onepage preview.] Sen,• Amartya K. Sen, 1970 [1984]. Collective Choice and Social Welfare [http://www.citeulike.org/user/rlai/article/681900 (description)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501210252/http://www.citeulike.org/user/rlai/article/681900 |date=2011-05-01 }}:

:ch. 9, "Equity and Justice," pp. 131-51.

:ch. 9*, "Impersonality and Collective Quasi-Orderings," pp. 152-160.
• _____, 1977. "Social Choice Theory: A Re-Examination," Econometrica, 45(1), pp. [http://www.universidadiberoamericana.com.mx/humanismocristiano/seminario_capability/pdf/22.pdf 53-88.]
• _____, [1987] 2008. "justice," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_J000033&edition=current&q=justice&topicid=&result_number=1 Abstract.]
• _____, 2009. The Idea of Justice, Harvard University Press. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674060470 Description] and scroll to [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674060470&content=toc Table of Contents], [https://books.google.com/books?id=enqMd_ze6RMC&pg=PA1=gbs_v2_summary_r preview], [https://books.google.com/books?id=enqMd_ze6RMC&pg=PA472=gbs_v2_summary_r back-cover] comments of Hilary Putnam, Kenneth Arrow, Philippe Van Parijs, and G. A. Cohen, and a [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674060470&content=reviews guide to reviews]. and others.• Walter Bossert and John A. Weymark, 2008. "social choice (new developments)," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_S000503&edition=current&q= Abstract.]
   • Charles Blackorby, Walter Bossert, and David Donaldson, 2002. "Utilitarianism and the Theory of Justice," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, v. 1, ch. 11, pp. 543–596. [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574011002800157 Abstract.]

A broad reinterpretation of justice from the perspective of game theory, social contract theory, and evolutionary naturalism is found in the works of Ken Binmore (1994, 1998, 2004) and others. Arguments on fairness as an aspect of justice have been invoked to explain a wide range of behavioral and theoretical applications, supplementing earlier emphasis on economic efficiency (Konow, 2003).