Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

11-2026

Abstract

There are two related kinds of arguments for paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved individuals in the US, one economic regarding how it should be done and one moral regarding why it should be done. These arguments were developed independently of one another, and have not been explicitly connected. Successful public policy for paying reparations needs both kinds of arguments and needs them to be mutually supporting. This paper discusses how that might be done. It first examines the moral arguments’ use of Locke’s natural rights thinking, and compares its affinity with neoclassical economics individualism to Stratification economics’ understanding of individuals as members of social groups. It next discusses how this all bears on objections made to paying reparations in the harm and inheritance arguments. It then discusses how the right to reparations implies a principle of collective or shared moral responsibility on the part of who would pay them, in this case the US federal government.

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