Distribution theory

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The distribution theory in economics examines and explains the distribution of income and wealth .

Basically, the problem can be broken down into five questions:

1. the question of the personal income and assets of each individual,

2. according to the income and wealth of households and

3. according to the income and assets of certain social groups, for example according to the division of national income into income from work and income from property;

4. How the national income is distributed among wages, rent, interest and corporate profits,

5. How the shares of the value added of individual branches of the economy in national income (= net national income at factor costs) are determined.

The functional distribution of income

Under the aspect of functional income distribution, it is considered how the national income is divided between wages and profits. According to Erich Schneider, a distinction can be made between cycle theory and marginal productivity theory .

The circular theory perspective characterizes the theories of François Quesnay , Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes . Léon Walras stands for the price theory perspective .

Quesnay introduced the conception of what happens in an economic period as the production and distribution of a national product. One should not associate this with the idea of ​​a store of goods; Rather, it is a matter of a randomly cut piece of a constantly flowing, constantly renewing flow of goods.

Richard Cantillon (1680–1734) already made a distinction between three types of income and corresponding classes of income earners, as David Ricardo then met . For Ricardo the determination of the laws of the distribution of the total production of a national economy between the classes of landowners, capital owners and workers is the central question of political economy .

Nicholas Kaldor distinguishes four types of distribution theories:

1. the classical distribution theory

2. the Marxian distribution theory

3. the neoclassical distribution theory

4. Keynesian distribution theory.

The personal income distribution

This must be distinguished from the question of personal income distribution, i.e. H. how the national income is distributed among the individual income earners. For this purpose, the total income (usually the available private income) of a natural person is used, as it is composed of wages, basic pension, interest and profit. The state's shares in the national income as well as the net profits of corporations remain outside this consideration, the breakdown of which among the owners does not appear arithmetically feasible.

Individual evidence

  1. The net national income was called the net national product until 1995
  2. Ekkehart Schlicht: Introduction. In: Ekkehart Schlicht: Introduction to distribution theory. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-499-21088-6 , p. 13.
  3. Joseph A. Schumpeter : The basic principle of the distribution theory. In: Essays on Economic Theory. Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1952, p. 326.
  4. ^ David Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy. In: Piero Sraffa, (Ed.): Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, 1951, p. 5. Cf. Martin Bronfenbrenner: Income Distribution Theory. Aldine Atherton, Chicago, New York 1971, ISBN 0-202-06037-3 , p. 1.
  5. Nicholas Kaldor: Alternative Distribution Theories. In: Ekkehart Schlicht: Introduction to distribution theory. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-499-21088-6 , p. 101.
  6. Erwin Scheele: Theory of Income Distribution. In: Werner Ehrlicher, Ingeborg Esenwein-Rothe, Harald Jürgensen, Klaus Rose (eds.): Compendium of Economics. Volume 1. 4th edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973, ISBN 3-525-13135-6 , p. 289.

literature

  • Ekkehart Schlicht: Introduction to Distribution Theory. With contributions by K. Polanyi, H. Codere, R. Heilbroner, D. Ricardo, N. Kaldor, AK Sen, E. Schlicht, P. Garegnani, Ch. Kennedy, ES Phelps, LL Pasinetti, JE Meade, JE Stiglitz. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-499-21088-6 .
  • Frank Klanberg, Hans-Jürgen Krupp: Distribution of income. Königstein / Taunus 1981.
  • Adam Smith Wealth of Nations at least ten translations into German and the original from 1776.