IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_916.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Some Macroeconomic Consequences of Basic Income and Employment Subsidies

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Moutos
  • William Scarth

Abstract

Two macro models – one for a closed economy and the other for a small open economy – are used to examine the scope for income redistribution and employment creation. In particular, the introduction of both a guaranteed annual income (basic income) and an employment subsidy are examined, and these policies are compared to a straightforward tax cut for (unskilled) labour. All initiatives are financed by a tax on capital. In the open-economy setting, capital is perfectly mobile, so there is a trade-off between the direct benefits of each policy, and the costs that follow from the out-migration of capital. The model is used to assess the relative importance of these competing effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Moutos & William Scarth, 2003. "Some Macroeconomic Consequences of Basic Income and Employment Subsidies," CESifo Working Paper Series 916, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_916
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp916.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans-Werner Sinn, 1994. "A Theory of the Welfare State," CESifo Working Paper Series 65, CESifo.
    2. Browning, Edgar K., 1995. "Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Income and Welfare," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 48(1), pages 23-43, March.
    3. Edwards, Jeremy & Keen, Michael, 1996. "Tax competition and Leviathan," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 113-134, January.
    4. L. F. M. Groot & H. M. M. Peeters, 1997. "A Model of Conditional and Unconditional Social Security in an Efficiency Wage Economy: The Economic Sustainability of a Basic Income," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 573-597, July.
    5. Van der Linden, Bruno, 1998. "Fighting unemployment without worsening povety: Basic income versus reductions of social security contributions," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1999028, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 00 Oct 1999.
    6. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1994. "How Much Europe? Subsidiarity, Centralization and Fiscal Competition," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 41(1), pages 85-107, February.
    7. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 1995. "The consequences of minimum wage laws Some new theoretical ideas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 245-255, February.
    8. N. Eissa & H. W. Hoynes, "undated". "The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Labor Supply of Married Couples," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1194-99, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    9. Blundell, Richard & Macurdy, Thomas, 1999. "Labor supply: A review of alternative approaches," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1559-1695, Elsevier.
    10. Anke S. Kessler & Christoph Lülfesmann & Gordon M. Myers, 2002. "Redistribution, Fiscal Competition, and the Politics of Economic Integration," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(4), pages 899-923.
    11. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    12. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 1998. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from Seven OECD Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1215-1244.
    13. Pissarides, Christopher A., 1998. "The impact of employment tax cuts on unemployment and wages; The role of unemployment benefits and tax structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 155-183, January.
    14. Summers, Lawrence H, 1988. "Relative Wages, Efficiency Wages, and Keynesian Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(2), pages 383-388, May.
    15. Erkki Koskela & Ronnie Schöb, 2002. "Optimal Factor Income Taxation in the Presence of Unemployment," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 4(3), pages 387-404, July.
    16. Richard B. Freeman, 1995. "Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 15-32, Summer.
    17. Christopher Heady & Theodore Mitrakos & Panos Tsakloglou, 2001. "The distributional impact of social transfers in the European Union: evidence from the ECHP," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 547-565., December.
    18. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1995. " A Theory of the Welfare State," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(4), pages 495-526, December.
    19. Browning, Edgar K., 1995. "Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Income and Welfare," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(1), pages 23-43, March.
    20. Richard Blundell, 1992. "Labour supply and taxation: a survey," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 15-40, January.
    21. R. G. Lipsey & Kelvin Lancaster, 1956. "The General Theory of Second Best," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 24(1), pages 11-32.
    22. Gary Burtless, 1986. "The work response to a guaranteed income: a survey of experimental evidence," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 30, pages 22-59.
    23. A. B. Atkinson, 1999. "The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011719, December.
    24. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    25. Wildasin, David E, 1991. "Income Redistribution in a Common Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 757-774, September.
    26. Van der Linden, Bruno, 1997. "Basic income and unemployment in a unionized economy," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1997014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 10 Jul 1997.
    27. Alex Bowen & Ken Mayhew (ed.), 1990. "Improving Incentives for the Low-Paid," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-21012-1.
    28. Bowles, Samuel, 1992. "Is income security possible in a capitalist economy? : An agency-theoretic analysis of an unconditional income grant," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 557-578, December.
    29. Meade, James E, 1972. "Poverty in the Welfare State," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 289-326, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. La, Jung Joo, 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of basic income funded by a land-holding tax in Korea," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 1-9.
    2. La, Jung Joo, 2023. "Macroeconomic effects of basic income funded by land holding tax," MPRA Paper 116151, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. William Scarth & Lei Tang, 2008. "An Evaluation of the Working Income Tax Benefit," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 34(1), pages 25-36, March.
    4. William Scarth & Lei Tang, 2007. "An Evaluation of the Working Income Tax Benefit," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 220, McMaster University.
    5. William Scarth & Lei Tang, 2007. "An Evaluation of the Working Income Tax Benefit," Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population Research Reports 424, McMaster University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Van der Linden, Bruno, 1999. "Active Citizen's Income, Unconditional Income and Participation under Imperfect Competition: A Normative Analysis," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1999023, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    2. Parviainen, Seija, 1998. "Redistribution and Risk Sharing in EMU," Discussion Papers 159, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Wilson, John Douglas & Wildasin, David E., 2004. "Capital tax competition: bane or boon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1065-1091, June.
    4. Van der Linden, Bruno, 1998. "Fighting unemployment without worsening povety: Basic income versus reductions of social security contributions," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1999028, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 00 Oct 1999.
    5. Frederick Van der Ploeg, 2003. "Do Social Policies Harm Employment and Growth?," CESifo Working Paper Series 886, CESifo.
    6. Lans Bovenberg, 2003. "Tax Policy and Labor Market Performance," CESifo Working Paper Series 1035, CESifo.
    7. Jacques H. Dreze, 2000. "Economic and Social Security in the Twenty‐first Century, with Attention to Europe," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(3), pages 327-348, September.
    8. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    9. Dreze, Jacques H, 2000. " Economic and Social Security in the Twenty-First Century, with Attention to Europe," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(3), pages 327-348, June.
    10. Anderson, Torben M, 2002. " International Integration, Risk and the Welfare State," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 104(3), pages 343-364, September.
    11. Frederick Van der Ploeg, 2004. "The Welfare State, Redistribution and the Economy, Reciprocal Altruism, Consumer Rivalry and Second Best," CESifo Working Paper Series 1234, CESifo.
    12. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "Fiscal Competition and European Union: Contrasting Perspectives," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 10, pages 182-194, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Moffitt, Robert A., 2002. "Welfare programs and labor supply," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 34, pages 2393-2430, Elsevier.
    14. Alessandra Venturini & Gil S. Epstein, 2006. "Migration, effort, and voter sentiment towards temporary migration," CHILD Working Papers wp18_06, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    15. Altenburg, Lutz & Straub, Martin, 2001. "Taxes on labour and unemployment in a shirking model with union bargaining," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 721-744, December.
    16. Dennis J. Snower, 1998. "Causes of changing earnings inequality," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 69-133.
    17. Jonas Agell, 2004. "Efficiency and Equality in the Labour Market," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 50(2), pages 255-278.
    18. Bruce Headey & Ruud Muffels, 2008. "Do Generous Welfare States Generate Efficiency Gains which Counterbalance Short Run Losses? Testing Downside Risk Theory with Economic Panel Data for the U.S., Germany and The Netherlands," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 337-354, April.
    19. Herwig Immervoll & Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Emmanuel Saez, 2007. "Welfare reform in European countries: a microsimulation analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(516), pages 1-44, January.
    20. Jan Boone, 2004. "Unemployment Insurance and Workers' Mobility," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(2), pages 275-293, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_916. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.