IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/agspub/v4y2015i2p153-168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capitalism and Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Prabhat Patnaik

Abstract

In discussing inequality under capitalism, we must distinguish between ‘stock inequality’ and ‘flow inequality’, or inequality in wealth and inequality in incomes. We also have to be clear whether our focus is the capitalist sector proper, consisting only of the workers and the capitalists, or the capitalist sector together with the setting in which it exists, which includes its pre-capitalist surroundings. This article argues that the focus must be wider, encompassing the capitalist sector together with its setting. Over this wider terrain, wealth inequality has a tendency to increase over time not only because of ‘centralization of capital’ highlighted by Marx but also because of the dispossession of petty producers, the so-called ‘primitive accumulation of capital’, which continues throughout the history of capitalism. Primitive accumulation also ensures the existence of a persistently large reserve army of labour which keeps down real wages even as labour productivity increases, resulting in an increase over time in income inequality as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Prabhat Patnaik, 2015. "Capitalism and Inequality," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 4(2), pages 153-168, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:agspub:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:153-168
    DOI: 10.1177/2277976015592070
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277976015592070
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277976015592070?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    2. Luigi L. Pasinetti, 1962. "Rate of Profit and Income Distribution in Relation to the Rate of Economic Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 29(4), pages 267-279.
    3. Paul A. Samuelson & Franco Modigliani, 1966. "The Pasinetti Paradox in Neoclassical and More General Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 33(4), pages 269-301.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rishabh Kumar, 2015. "Wealth accumulation and aggregate demand stagnation in a two class economy with applications to the United States," Working Papers 1526, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    2. Serena Brianzoni, & Cristiana Mammana, & Elisabetta Michetti,, 2006. "Global attractor in Solow growth model with differential savings and endogenic labor force growth," Working Papers 35-2006, Macerata University, Department of Finance and Economic Sciences, revised Oct 2008.
    3. Brianzoni, Serena & Mammana, Cristiana & Michetti, Elisabetta, 2009. "Nonlinear dynamics in a business-cycle model with logistic population growth," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 717-730.
    4. Palmisani, Cesare, 2008. "Una rassegna su alcuni modelli di crescita economica tipo Solow con dinamica caotica," MPRA Paper 9506, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bertola, Giuseppe, 2000. "Macroeconomics of distribution and growth," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 477-540, Elsevier.
    6. Michaël Assous & Muriel Dal Pont Legrand & Sonia Manseri, 2020. "Samuelson's Neoclassical Synthesis in the Context of Growth Economics, 1956-1967," GREDEG Working Papers 2020-12, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    7. Agliari, Anna & Böhm, Volker & Pecora, Nicolò, 2020. "Endogenous cycles from income diversity, capital ownership, and differential savings," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Dohtani, Akitaka, 2010. "A growth-cycle model of Solow-Swan type, I," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 428-444, November.
    9. Delano S Villanueva & Roberto S Mariano & Diwa C Guinigundo & Abbas Mirakhor, 2023. "Finance and Endogenous Growth," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Economic Adjustment and Growth Theory and Practice, chapter 5, pages 96-118, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Bohm, Volker & Kaas, Leo, 2000. "Differential savings, factor shares, and endogenous growth cycles," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 24(5-7), pages 965-980, June.
    11. Brianzoni, Serena & Mammana, Cristiana & Michetti, Elisabetta, 2012. "Variable elasticity of substituition in a discrete time Solow–Swan growth model with differential saving," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 98-108.
    12. Wolfgang Kuhle, 2014. "The Optimal Structure for Public Debt," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 321-348, May.
    13. Kumar, Rishabh & Schoder, Christian & Radpour, Siavash, 2018. "Demand driven growth and capital distribution in a two class model with applications to the United States," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-8.
    14. Javier López-Bernardo & Félix López-Martínez & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2016. "A Post-Keynesian Response to Piketty's ‘Fundamental Contradiction of Capitalism’," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 190-204, April.
    15. Daniele Tavani, 2023. "The Classical Model of Growth and Distribution," Working Papers 2311, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    16. Tramontana, Fabio & Gardini, Laura & Agliari, Anna, 2011. "Endogenous cycles in discontinuous growth models," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 81(8), pages 1625-1639.
    17. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2018. "Pareto efficient taxation and expenditures: Pre- and re-distribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 101-119.
    18. Enea Baselgia & Reto Foellmi, 2022. "Inequality and growth: a review on a great open debate in economics," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-5, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Simone Bertoli & Francesco Farina, 2007. "The functional distribution of income: a review of the theoretical literature and of the empirical evidence around its recent pattern in European countries," Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development (DEPFID) University of Siena 005, Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development (DEPFID), University of Siena.
    20. , Stone Center & Ranaldi, Marco, 2020. "Distributional Aspects of Economic Systems," SocArXiv n7wj4, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:agspub:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:153-168. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.