Stratification Economics as an Economics of Exclusion

Stratification economics (SE) is an emergent subfield in economics, but its JEL classification misrepresents its content and its relationship to the whole of economics. This paper first develops a more accurate characterization of SE by identifying its differences with mainstream economics (ME), its commonalities with economics in a broad sense, and how the combination of these differences and commonalities define it as a distinct research program. It then applies this definition to an economic goods taxonomy that makes a distinction between local public goods and common pool goods to interpret SE’S distinct research program as an economics of exclusion. The paper closes with a discussion of how SE might explain socioeconomic change in social group identity terms.