Self-managed market socialism with “free mobility of labor”

Abstract

In 1934 Breit and Lange presented a model of a socialist market economy in which workers had a right to be employed by self-managed firms. The interest of this model lies in particular in the fact that it eliminates two possible flaws of Myrian-type socialism: differentiation in per capita earnings across self-managed firms and involuntary unemployment. Analogous features can be found in Herztka's 19th-century model of market socialism. The purpose of the paper is to analyze an economy with free mobility of labor (Herztka's expression for the right of workers to employment) both from the point of view of X- as well as of allocative efficiency. Finally the possibility of a partial application of the right to employment principle in a capitalist economy is considered.