Friday, November 7th 4 pm – 6 pm at Park Hall 141

The speaker: Dr. Joseph Heath. Dr. Heath is a professor in philosophy at the University of Toronto. His interest lies in social and political philosophy, business ethics, moral philosophy, and distributive justice. He is the author of many renowned books and papers including “Following the Rules (Oxford)”, “Filthy Lucre (Harper Collins)”, and “Communicative Action and Rational Choice (MIT Press).”

The title and abstract of the talk: What is the Price of Freedom for Workers?

Philosophical discussions of market failure typically focus on three canonical causes: externalities, information asymmetries, and insufficient competitiveness. These three causes are important in part because of their generality, since the defects in question can arise in any market. There is, however, another extremely important source of market failure, which is sometimes overlooked because it lacks the same generality. The market failures in question arise from the non-alienability of labor (or the constraint that human capital can only be rented, not purchased). Non-alienability is institutionalized through limits on contracting, which directly inhibit the formation of certain markets. But these constraints also have downstream effects, causing other markets to fail. This paper describes these effects in the markets for credit, for education and training, and in childrearing services. Understanding these market failures, in turn, helps us to better understand the various non-market institutions that arise in order to address these problems.