Abstract
MOST economists in discussing the subject of inequality in the distribution of wealth have been content to give either a descriptive account of social institutions affecting distribution or an analysis of income into rent, interest, wages and profits. Mr. Dickinson attempts to combine the institutional and analytical points of view. Defining an institution as a set pattern of social behaviour with respect to some function or functions, he puts forward the theory that certain social institutions, though not necessarily only those embodied in definite organisations or associations, maintain the existence of non-competing groups which by means of limitations on entry, secure an ‘institutional revenue’ akin to a monopoly revenue for the more favoured of these groups. There is of course considerable mobility between the groups since Western society is not rigidly divided into orders or castes like that of old Japan or modern India. Members of the more favoured groups, however, are only subject to outside competition from exceptional persons in less advantaged groups.
Institutional Revenue: a Study of the Influence of Social Institutions on the Distribution of Wealth.
By H. D. Dickinson. Pp. 264. (London: Williams and Norgate, Ltd., 1932.) 10s. 6d. net.
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Institutional Revenue: a Study of the Influence of Social Institutions on the Distribution of Wealth . Nature 132, 85 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132085b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132085b0