IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v10y1978i2p43-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Differentially Exploited Labor: A Marxian Theory of Discrimination

Author

Listed:
  • J.E. Roemer
  • John Roemer

    (Dept. of Economics University of California Davis, CA 95616)

Abstract

This paper develops the Marxian theory of value and exploitation for an economy where workers are exploited at different rates due to discrimi nation which is independent of their productivity. The purpose of the paper is to begin an analysis of the formal structure underlying Marxian concepts of dis crimination and labor market segmentation. First, the classical Marxian theory of exploitation is shown to hold for the model. Then, the concept of the wages- profit surface is developed, and the shape of this surface is characterized. Know ledge of this surface allows some discussion of the reasons for the emergence and persistence of discrimination in capitalist economies — reasons which are much more akin to the Marxian divide-and-conquer notions than the various neoclas sical notions. Finally, a result is presented philosophically akin to the Cambridge results on the rate of profit: it is shown that in economies with discrimination the profit rate cannot be simply interpreted as a measure of economic efficiency. Furthermore, it does not just measure the inter-class distribution of income, since it also depends on how different groups of workers are allocated among firms.

Suggested Citation

  • J.E. Roemer & John Roemer, 1978. "Differentially Exploited Labor: A Marxian Theory of Discrimination," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 43-53, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:10:y:1978:i:2:p:43-53
    DOI: 10.1177/048661347801000203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/048661347801000203
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/048661347801000203?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. Bowles, Samuel & Gintis, Herbert, 1977. "The Marxian Theory of Value and Heterogeneous Labour: A Critique and Reformulation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(2), pages 173-192, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammed SHARIF, 2000. "Inverted “S”—The complete neoclassical labour-supply function," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 139(4), pages 409-435, December.
    2. François Combarnous, 1997. "Discrimination et marché du travail urbain : Le cas d'Abidjan en Côte d'Ivoire," Documents de travail 15, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    3. François Combarnous, 1994. "Discrimination et marché du travail : concepts et théories," Documents de travail 02, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    4. André Lapidus, 1993. "Le travail qualifié est-il trop complexe pour se laisser réduire ? Marx sans les conventions," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 44(5), pages 971-990.
    5. Patrick Mason, 1992. "The divide-and-conquer and employer/ employee models of discrimination: Neoclassical competition as a familial defect," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 73-89, June.

    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. Veneziani, Roberto & Yoshihara, Naoki, 2014. "One million miles to go: taking the axiomatic road to defining exploitation," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    2. Naoki Yoshihara, 2017. "A Progress Report On Marxian Economic Theory: On The Controversies In Exploitation Theory Since Okishio (1963)," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1421-1448, December.
    3. Levrero, Enrico Sergio, 2009. "Marx on absolute and relative wages," MPRA Paper 20976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. André Lapidus, 1993. "Le travail qualifié est-il trop complexe pour se laisser réduire ? Marx sans les conventions," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 44(5), pages 971-990.
    5. repec:ums:papers:2014-010 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. G. Coleman, 2002. "Contesting the Magic of the Market-place: Black Employment and Business Concentration in the Urban Context," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(10), pages 1793-1818, September.
    7. Jonathan F. Cogliano, 2021. "Marx's Equalized Rate of Exploitation," Working Papers 2021-01, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    8. Duan, Yide & Zhang, Haotian & Wang, Wenfu & Ao, Xiaoyan, 2022. "The effects of China's higher education expansion on urban and rural intergenerational mobility," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Gérard Duménil & Duncan Foley & Dominique Lévy, 2009. "A Note On The Formal Treatment Of Exploitation In A Model With Heterogenous Labor," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 560-567, July.
    10. Kenji Mori, 2010. "Charasoff and Dmitriev: An Analytical Characterisation of Origins of Linear Economics," TERG Discussion Papers 249, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    11. Kenji Mori, 2008. "Maurice Potron'S Linear Economic Model: A De Facto Proof Of ‘Fundamental Marxian Theorem’," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 511-529, July.
    12. S Clegg & P Cooke & M Storper & M J Dear & A J Hooper & K J Woods & D K Forbes & C Gore, 1983. "Review: The Limits to Capital, Segmented Labour Markets: Conspiracy or Collusion? Segmented Work, Divided Workers: The Historical Transformation of Labor in the United States, the Dynamics of Labour M," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 15(10), pages 1413-1428, October.
    13. Anthony Eisenbarth & Zhuo Fu Chen, 2022. "The evolution of wage inequality within local U.S. labor markets," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Anwar Shaikh & Kyle Glenn, 2018. "The Classical Treatment of Skilled Labor," Working Papers 1811, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    15. Yoshihara, Naoki, 2014. "A Progressive Report on Marxian Economic Theory: On the Controversies in Exploitation Theory since Okishio (1963)," Discussion Paper Series 607, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    16. Takao Fujimoto & Arrigo Opocher, 2010. "Commodity Content In A General Input–Output Model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 442-453, July.
    17. Takao Fujimoto & Arrigo Opocher, 2010. "Commodity Content In A General Input–Output Model: A Reply To Bellino, Yoshihara And Veneziani," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 754-758, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:reorpe:v:10:y:1978:i:2:p:43-53. 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: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    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.