The canonical problem of equity in production economies consists of two agents with different tastes and abilities, each of whom contributes labor to produce a single consumption good. As a criterion for distributive justice, I require that if both agents work equal numbers of hours, they should divide the output equally. I also require that the labor-supply decision should remain sovereign. Sufficient conditions are established for achieving an efficient allocation using a division procedure that is consistent with the equal-division-for-equal-work principle, and it is shown that the conditions are satisfied in many standard economies.

The canonical problem of equity in production economies consists of two agents with different tastes and abilities, each of whom contributes labor to produce a single consumption good. As a criterion for distributive justice, the author requires that if both agents work equal numbers of hours, they should divide the output equally. He also requires that the labor-supply decision should remain sovereign. Sufficient conditions are established for achieving an efficient allocation using a division procedure that is consistent with the equal-division-for-equal-work principle and it is shown that the conditions are satisfied in many standard economies. Copyright 1994 by American Economic Association.