IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/inrvec/v69y2022i3d10.1007_s12232-022-00402-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Markets, merit and the dignity of labour

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Sugden

    (University of East Anglia)

Abstract

In The Tyranny of Merit, Sandel recasts the discontent expressed in populism as a rejection of market morality and as an inarticulate plea for the restoration of civic virtue. He argues that a ‘market-based globalisation project’ has fostered meritocratic ideas which humiliate the victims of that project and undermine the dignity of labour. I question Sandel’s claim that meritocracy is a market value and the dignity of labour is not. I argue that his account of a moral alternative to normal market institutions—an economy in which individuals’ rewards are somehow aligned with their true merits—is deeply incoherent.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Sugden, 2022. "Markets, merit and the dignity of labour," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(3), pages 323-338, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:69:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s12232-022-00402-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s12232-022-00402-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12232-022-00402-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12232-022-00402-7?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Tobin, 1978. "A Proposal for International Monetary Reform," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 4(3-4), pages 153-159, Jul/Oct.
    2. Robert A. Moffitt, 2003. "The Negative Income Tax and the Evolution of U.S. Welfare Policy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 119-140, Summer.
    3. Ms. Thornton Matheson, 2011. "Taxing Financial Transactions: Issues and Evidence," IMF Working Papers 2011/054, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Sugden, Robert & Wang, Mengjie, 2020. "Equality of opportunity and the acceptability of outcome inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    5. Robert Sugden, 1993. "Normative judgments and spontaneous order: The contractarian element in Hayek's thought," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 393-424, September.
    6. Luigino Bruni & Robert Sugden, 2013. "Reclaiming Virtue Ethics for Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(4), pages 141-164, Fall.
    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. Gaffeo, Edoardo & Molinari, Massimo, 2017. "Taxing financial transactions in fundamentally heterogeneous markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 322-333.
    2. Fitzgerald, Valpy, 2013. "The International Fiscal Implications of Global Poverty Reduction and Global Public Goods Provision," WIDER Working Paper Series 136, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Yiannis Kitromilides & Ana Rosa González, 2013. "The EU Financial Transactions Tax: Antecedents and Current Debate," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 60(3), pages 311-321, May.
    4. Capelle-Blancard, Gunther & Havrylchyk, Olena, 2016. "The impact of the French securities transaction tax on market liquidity and volatility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 166-178.
    5. Andrea Morone & Pasquale Marcello Falcone & Simone Nuzzo & Piergiuseppe Morone, 2020. "Does a ‘financial transaction tax’ drive out information mirages? An experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 15(4), pages 793-820, October.
    6. Dieler, T., 2014. "Essays on asset trading," Other publications TiSEM ea0c811e-e335-402f-a3e2-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Masciandaro, Donato & Passarelli, Francesco, 2013. "Financial systemic risk: Taxation or regulation?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 587-596.
    8. Tri Vi Dang & Xiaoxi Liu & Florian Morath, 2022. "Taxation, Information Acquisition, and Trade in Decentralized Markets: Theory and Test," Working Papers 2022-08, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    9. Karolina Puławska, 2022. "Taxation of the financial sector: Is a bank levy the answer to the financial crisis?," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(4), pages 390-404, December.
    10. Matthias Lengnick & Hans-Werner Wohltmann, 2013. "Agent-based financial markets and New Keynesian macroeconomics: a synthesis," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 8(1), pages 1-32, April.
    11. Felix Bierbrauer, 2013. "Financial Transaction Taxes and Fire Sales," 2013 Meeting Papers 433, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Nidhi Aggarwal & Venkatesh Panchapagesan & Susan Thomas, 2019. "When do regulatory interventions work?," Working Papers id:13040, eSocialSciences.
    13. Lensberg, Terje & Schenk-Hoppé, Klaus Reiner & Ladley, Dan, 2015. "Costs and benefits of financial regulation: Short-selling bans and transaction taxes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 103-118.
    14. Alonso, Miguel A. & Rallo, Juan Ramón & Romero, Alberto, 2013. "El efecto de los impuestos a las transacciones financieras en la estabilidad de los mercados de capital. Un debate sin resolver," El Trimestre Económico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, vol. 0(317), pages 207-231, enero-mar.
    15. Roman Šperka & Irena Szarowská, 2015. "Impact of a Financial Transaction Tax on a Financial Market," Working Papers 0013, Silesian University, School of Business Administration.
    16. Thomas Hemmelgarn & Gaëtan Nicodème & Bogdan Tasnadi & Pol Vermote, 2016. "Financial Transaction Taxes in the European Union," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(1), pages 217-240, March.
    17. Veryzhenko, Iryna & Harb, Etienne & Louhichi, Waël & Oriol, Nathalie, 2017. "The impact of the French financial transaction tax on HFT activities and market quality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 307-315.
    18. Olivier Damette & Stéphane Goutte, 2014. "Tobin tax and trading volume tightening: a reassessment," Working Papers halshs-00926805, HAL.
    19. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Lau, Mona & Noth, Felix, 2018. "The impact of financial transaction taxes on stock markets: Short-run effects, long-run effects, and migration," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 228, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    20. Giuliana Passamani & Roberto Tamborini & Matteo Tomaselli, 2016. "Taxing financial transactions in fundamentally heterogeneous markets," DEM Working Papers 2016/10, Department of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Merit; Meritocracy; Dignity of labour; Contributive justice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:spr:inrvec:v:69:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s12232-022-00402-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.