This paper studies Marx’s theories of the exploitation of labor and the falling rate of profit alongside Piketty’s identity in the era of financialization. Marx argues that capitalist systems literally exploit labor to extract surplus value, a claim that fans the flames of the critiques of capitalism and contributes to debates about class struggles. Marx also argues that capital accumulation leads to a falling rate of profit, which in modern times can be countered by financialization, as a result, guaranteeing the extraction of surplus value. On the other hand, Piketty’s analysis focuses on wealth inequality, proposing that the rate of return on capital outpaces the rate of economic growth (i.e., r > g ), which worsens societal wealth disparities over time, through inheritance and capital income. By synthesizing Marx’s and Piketty’s perspectives within the context of a modern financialized world, this study contributes to ongoing political economy debates on how financial mechanisms sustain the extraction of surplus value. We examine how financial practices influence Marx’s mechanisms of exploitation of labor and the falling rate of profit while also considering Piketty’s observations about capital accumulation and inequality. This connection between Marxian theories and contemporary wealth distribution informs debates and enriches discussions on managing inequality in the 21st century. 

Despite increasing agricultural productivity, malnutrition remains high among food producers in many developing countries. This study examines how the difference between agricultural household nutrition requirements and production kept for home consumption, the nutrient deficiency from own production (NDOP), impacts children’s height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) from a unique survey of 528 households in Zambia. The study also investigates the relationship between NDOP and market-bought nutrition and the role of intra-season price changes in nutrition. To address the endogeneity of NDOP, we use a control function (CF) approach and find that NDOP is associated with lower HAZ. Both energy NDOP (calories) and nutrient-specific NDOP, resulting from underproduction relative to nutritional requirements and from selling more than surplus food crops, are negatively correlated with HAZ. This result suggests that higher productivity and market participation do not always lead to better nutrition. We also find that crop sales (commercialisation) only benefit nutrition if the household sells surplus output relative to its nutrition requirements. Finally, we also find that NDOP does not correlate with increased market food purchases, and the seasonal price increases for cereals further dampen these purchases. The findings highlight that policies promoting smallholder commercialisation may overlook detrimental nutritional trade-offs when own-production falls short of household needs. Accounting for post-harvest allocation of nutrients between own-consumption, sales, and purchases can help ensure agricultural interventions improve farmer livelihoods and child nutrition.

We examine the relationship between access to private sanitation facilities at home and psychosocial development among adolescents aged 12-22 in India and Ethiopia. Using a longitudinal two-way fixed effects model, we find that access to private sanitation (flush toilets or pit latrines in the household) is associated with significantly higher self-efficacy and self-esteem for adolescent girls but not boys. Associations are stronger for girls that live in communities with higher overall access to private sanitation, suggesting relative access may matter more for psychosocial development than absolute access. We also find a significant correlation with improved peer relations for girls in early (age 12 to 15) but not late (age 19 to 22) adolescence. We do not find evidence that results are operating through improved physical health, suggesting there may be a direct impact of private sanitation facilities at home and psychosocial development in adolescent girls. Consistent with a direct channel, we also show private sanitation at home mitigates the likelihood of missing school due to menstruation for Indian girls in early adolescence. These findings suggest interventions should consider not only the health benefits of hygienic waste management, but also the potential gains from improved sanitation experiences for women and girls.

This study shows how persistent agricultural shocks in Ethiopia affect education, health and labor outcomes through a time-use study of young people aged 5-22. Leveraging five rounds of the Young Lives Study from 2002-2016, we use dynamic panel instrumental variable regressions to account for the unobserved heterogeneity and serial correlation in the estimation. Agricultural shocks significantly reduce schooling participation and time spent in schooling, deteriorate health, and increase both labor force participation and labor time. Household wealth acts as a buffer and mitigates the adverse effects of shocks on schooling. Interestingly, children from wealthier households have a higher likelihood of joining agricultural labor during shocks, but their intensity of child labor is significantly lower compared to poorer households. 

This paper uses unique longitudinal data from four low- and middle-income countries to examine the relationship between early-life access to sanitation services and children's cognitive development. The study tracks 8,062 children over 15 years and uses a fixed effects model to analyze the impact of early access to flush toilets and pit latrines on their vocabulary scores, math scores, height-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores. The study also uses hierarchical linear models to investigate the presence of community spillovers. The findings suggest a significant positive correlation between early access to sanitation services and children's cognitive development, although the results vary across countries. The paper finds evidence of community spillovers for vocabulary but not math. The study also supports a health mechanism: early access to flush toilets is significantly associated with improved height-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores. 

This study investigates the factors influencing households' decisions regarding choices of cooking fuel and drinking water sources in rural and small towns of Ethiopia, utilizing data from the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Surveys (ESS) conducted between 2012 and 2016. The study employs probit models (ordered and regular) to examine the effects of improved fuel and water sources on labor outcomes by leveraging variations in access. The findings are that household size, asset ownership, and the education level of the household head as well as their ages, are key determinants influencing the choice of cooking fuel and drinking water. Furthermore, adopting improved water sources significantly and positively impacts family business labor, while using improved cooking fuels significantly enhances agricultural labor. These findings demonstrate the potential benefits of transitioning to improved fuel and water sources in rural Ethiopia, emphasizing the importance of considering social and economic factors in sustainable development initiatives.

There is an increasing emphasis on the importance of allowing people as they grow older to continue to work according to their work capacity and preferences. This paper builds on earlier literature that shows that firms employ older workers, but they tend not to hire them, and provides an explorative analysis of the establishments that employ older workers in Sweden. A special focus is on how sensitive are the findings when the definition of older workers becomes more restrictive. Using rich employer-employee data from Swedish administrative registers, we find that the differences in establishments’ employment are large enough to explain some of the observed differences across definitions. The retirement age in the guaranteed pension scheme, i.e., 65 years, seems to be one of the institutional settings that affect both the employees' and employers’ decision for work after 65, but also the establishment’s size, age, and ownership.