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Exceptional Argentina Di Tella, Glaeser and Llach - Thomas Piketty

Exceptional Argentina Di Tella, Glaeser and Llach - Thomas Piketty

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Admissible Region<br />

Bounds on w<br />

b<br />

Next we present another relevant result, connecting the productivity of firms, the rise in anger,<br />

<strong>and</strong> the possible subsequent regulation. This result provides a potential explanation for why<br />

people in less developed countries don't like capitalism. If productivity is lower <strong>and</strong> more<br />

volatile in LDCs, that would explain why capitalists <strong>and</strong> capitalism are not popular.<br />

Proposition 2. When productivity decreases, or when it becomes more volatile, anger is more<br />

likely.<br />

Proof. When productivity decreases, the two loci of equations (2) <strong>and</strong> (1) move downwards by<br />

the amount of the decrease in productivity. Since equation (3) is unchanged, the set of pooling<br />

equilibrium wages shrinks.<br />

A larger volatility in productivities makes it more likely that a low (pooling breaking) cost will<br />

happen, <strong>and</strong> then the selfish firms will reveal themselves as such <strong>and</strong> anger will arise. QED<br />

An interesting point to note is that higher variability in productivity in LDCs could be the<br />

consequence of higher regulations to begin with: firms in sectors with a comparative advantage<br />

could have higher worker productivities while firms in protected sectors, lower productivities<br />

(even considering government regulations to protect them). In a sense, then, Peronism by<br />

introducing distortions generates anger towards capitalists, <strong>and</strong> perpetuates the beliefs that<br />

Peronism fostered.<br />

The next result illustrates another obvious feature of the rise in anger: when for some exogenous<br />

reason workers become “captive” of one particular firm, anger is more likely. The mechanism is<br />

as one would expect: when worker's labor elasticity of supply decreases, local monopolies have

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