The Injustice of Exploitation: An Axiomatic Approach∗

The normative relevance of the concept of exploitation is analysed in the context of subsistence economies with a general convex technology and rational optimising agents. A new, axiomatic approach is developed, which allows an explicit analysis of the core positive and normative intuitions behind the concept of exploitation. Three main new axioms, called Labour Exploitation in Subsistence Economies, Relational Exploitation, and Feasibility of Non-Exploitation, are presented and it is proved that they uniquely characterise a definition of exploitation conceptually related to the so-called “NewInterpretation” (Dumenil, 1980; Foley, 1982), which focuses on the unequal distribution of (and control over) social labour, and on individual well-being freedom and the self-realisation of men. Then, the ∗Preliminary version, please do not cite without permission. We are grateful to Nizar Allouch, Chiaki Hara, Takashi Hayashi, Motoshige Ito, Atsushi Kajii, Kazuya Kamiya, Marco Mariotti, Akihiko Matsui, Prasanta Pattanaik, Dan Sasaki, Tomoichi Shinotsuka, Gil Skillman, Yuki Yoshihara, and participants in Public Economic Theory 2008 held in Soeul, Korea and in seminars at Hitotsubashi University, University of Tokyo, Institute of Economic Research at Kyoto University, Ritsumeikan University, Niigata University, and Keio University for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. This research started when Roberto Veneziani was visiting Hitotsubashi University. Their generous hospitality and financial support is gratefully acknowledged. †The Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Naka 2-1, Kunitachi, Tokyo 186-0004, Japan. ([email protected]) ‡Department of Economics, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom. ([email protected])