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Five Crossroads on the Way to Basic Income. An Italian Tour

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  • Ugo Colombino

Abstract

The current Italian income support policies are defective with respect to efficiency and equity. A reform must face five crucial choices: universal vs. categorical policies; transfers vs. subsidies; unconditional vs. means-tested policies; coverage; flat vs. progressive tax rules. Using a microeconometric model and a social welfare methodology, we simulate—under fiscal neutrality and market equilibrium—the effects of 30 policies obtained from three basic types: conditional basic income, unconditional basic income and wage subsidies. The alternative reforms are evaluated according to four different social welfare criterion: the pure utilitarian and three different versions of a Gini-type social welfare function. The pure utilitarian criterion favours reforms based on a wage subsidy or a combination of wage subsidies and transfers. The Gini-type criteria favour unconditional transfers or combinations of wage subsidies with unconditional transfers. Most of the reforms turn out to be preferable to the current system: the choice set available for selecting a “best” reform given different criteria is very large. Copyright Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association) 2015

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  • Ugo Colombino, 2015. "Five Crossroads on the Way to Basic Income. An Italian Tour," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 1(3), pages 353-389, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:italej:v:1:y:2015:i:3:p:353-389
    DOI: 10.1007/s40797-015-0018-3
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Ugo Colombino, 2019. "Is unconditional basic income a viable alternative to other social welfare measures?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 128-128, March.
    2. Colombino, Ugo & Islam, Nizamul, 2020. "Combining microsimulation and optimization to identify optimal flexible tax-transfer rules," EUROMOD Working Papers EM13/20, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. James Browne & Herwig Immervoll, 2017. "Mechanics of replacing benefit systems with a basic income: comparative results from a microsimulation approach," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(4), pages 325-344, December.
    4. Ugo Colombino & Nizamul Islam, 2021. "Combining microsimulation and optimization to identify optimal universalistic tax-transfer rule," LISER Working Paper Series 2021-06, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    5. Islam, Nizamul & Colombino, Ugo, 2018. "The case for NIT+FT in Europe. An empirical optimal taxation exercise," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 38-69.
    6. repec:ces:ifofor:v:19:y:2018:i:3:p:20-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Ugo Colombino & Nizamul Islam, 2018. "Basic Income and Flat Tax: The Italian Scenario," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 19(03), pages 20-29, October.
    8. Luigi Campiglio, 2017. "Absolute-poverty, food and housing," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica ispe0079, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    9. Colombino, Ugo & Islam, Nizamul, 2022. "The "Robot Economy" and Optimal Tax-Transfer Reforms," IZA Discussion Papers 15198, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Rolf Aaberge & Ugo Colombino, 2018. "Structural Labour Supply Models and Microsimulation," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 11(1), pages 162-197.
    11. Nizamul Islam & Ugo Colombino, 2018. "The case for negative income tax with flat tax in Europe. An empirical optimal taxation exercise," Working Papers 454, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    12. Magnani, Riccardo & Piccoli, Luca, 2020. "Universal basic income with flat tax reform in France," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 235-249.
    13. Rolf Aaberge & Ugo Colombino, 2014. "Labour Supply Models," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Handbook of Microsimulation Modelling, volume 127, pages 167-221, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Ugo Colombino & Nizamul Islam, 2022. "The “Robot Economy†and optimal tax-transfer reforms," CHILD Working Papers Series 101 JEL Classification: H, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    15. Martinelli, Luke & O'Neill, Kathryn, 2019. "A comparison of the fiscal and distributional effects of alternative basic income implementation modes across the EU28," EUROMOD Working Papers EM14/19, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income support mechanisms; Basic income; Guaranteed minimum income; Wage subsidies; Tax reform simulation; H31; H21; C25;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities

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