Sprawiedliwość czy efektywność? Analiza wykorzystująca ekonometryczny model wzrostu gospodarczego z historycznie optymalnym zróżnicowaniem płac

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse mutual relations between justice and efficiency in the context of the market economy from a philosophical point of view. Justice is interpreted as the equal division of income which is expressed by Lorentz coefficient and efficiency is understood as the economic growth expressed by the rate of the growth of GDP. The point of departure of the conducted analysis is a standard conviction that there is a conflict between justice and efficiency. Taking advantage of the model of the economic growth with historically optimal inequality of income, the following problems are analysed: if a just division of income can be defined by economic efficiency, and if yes in what sense, if efficiency defines justice standards, if the efficiency postulate has primacy over justice requirements, and if it the compromise between justice and efficiency is possible. Because of the fact that the set problems are of normative character (their settlement depends on acceptance of evaluative judgements), notions of economy of prosperity (so called Pareto optimality) and of ethics (Rawls’s theory o f justice as fairness, Sen’s argumentation for inequality) were used in the analysis. The conclusion of the conducted analysis is a conviction that to solve the justice-efficiency dilemma practically, revealing assumptions and arguments, which can be quoted in favour of each mentioned option, can be very useful. The one we will choose (justice or efficiency) depends on our awareness of supporting arguments for each option and the kind of assumptions it is based upon.