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Why economists dislike a lump of labor

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Author Info

  • Tom Walker

Abstract

The lump-of-labor fallacy has been called one of the “best known fallacies in economics.” It is widely cited in disparagement of policies for reducing the standard hours of work, yet the authenticity of the fallacy claim is questionable, and explanations of it are inconsistent and contradictory. This article discusses recent occurrences of the fallacy claim and investigates anomalies in the claim and its history. S.J. Chapman's coherent and formerly highly regarded theory of the hours of labor is reviewed, and it is shown how that theory could lend credence to the job-creating potentiality of shorter working time policies. It concludes that substituting a dubious fallacy claim for an authentic economic theory may have obstructed fruitful dialogue about working time and the appropriate policies for regulating it.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Review of Social Economy.

Volume (Year): 65 (2007)
Issue (Month): 3 ()
Pages: 279-291
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Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:65:y:2007:i:3:p:279-291

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For corrections or technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Michael McNulty).

Related research

Keywords: lump-of-labor fallacy; hours of work; full-employment policy;

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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Fawcett: "The Regulation of the Hours of Labour by the State" (abridged) IV
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-08-31 20:07:00
  2. Number One!
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-08-02 03:22:00
  3. Only So Much Boilerplate to Go Round
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-07-17 02:17:00
  4. Jobless Recovery v. Working Less
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-07-10 18:39:00
  5. No Evidence that Business Week Economics Editor Knows What He is Talking About
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-07-09 15:56:00
  6. The Danger of Boilerplate
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-06-18 18:32:00
  7. Those Wacky Europeans!
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2009-05-08 00:03:00
  8. Bailouts and JAWBS
    by Sandwichman in EconoSpeak on 2008-11-20 18:18:00
  9. Invitation to Ryan Avent for a Debate
    by Sandwichman in ecological headstand on 2011-08-25 20:21:00
  10. What's Wrong with the Case AGAINST Shorter Work? VI
    by Sandwichman in The Lump of Labor on 2011-12-16 00:50:00
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
  1. Zhang, Chuanchuan, 2012. "The relationship between elderly employment and youth employment: evidence from China," MPRA Paper 37221, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Antoine Bozio & Carl Emmerson, 2010. "Releasing jobs for the young? Early retirement and youth unemployment in the United Kingdom," IFS Working Papers W10/02, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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