IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecr/col094/25938.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A regional basic income: towards the eradication of extreme poverty in Central America

Author

Listed:
  • Krozer, Alice

Abstract

Centroamérica sigue enfrentando niveles muy altos de pobreza e indigencia, siendo además la región más desigual del mundo. Por lo tanto, este ensayo propone la erradicación de la pobreza extrema en la región a través de la implementación de una transferencia monetaria universal e incondicional. Esta Renta Básica garantizaría la sobrevivencia a todo ciudadano, independientemente de su condición personal, familiar, u ocupacional. Simultáneamente, la propuesta fomentaría la redistribución de ingresos, avanzaría la educación, productividad futura y crecimiento, promovería la estabilidad macroeconómica, y aliviaría la presión migratoria. El esquema establecería un cambio en las políticas de desarrollo, substituyendo los programas condicionados paliativos y orientados al corto plazo con un acercamiento a la erradicación de la pobreza preventivo y basado en derecho. Centroamérica invita para tal propuesta, considerando la ostensible desigualdad y los niveles de pobreza de sus países por un lado, y por el otro la existencia de un mercado común y grado relativo de integración, que podría facilitar la tarea. Este ensayo estima los costos de cubrir la población entera de la región con una Renta Básica, y demuestra que dicha propuesta puede ser viable, y económicamente accesible y benéfica, mientras ofrezca una postura novedosa y universalmente justa hacia la erradicación de la pobreza. ABSTRACT Central America continues facing high poverty and indigence levels, while being the most unequal region in the world. This paper therefore proposes the eradication of extreme poverty in the region through the implementation of a universal, unconditional cash transfer to all citizens. Such a regional Basic Income would guarantee every citizen, independently of occupation, age, or family background, survival. Simultaneously, the proposal would further income redistribution, enhance education, future productivity and growth, promote macroeconomic stability, and alleviate emigrational pressures. Such a scheme would establish a paradigm change in development policy thinking by moving away from the uncertainty of palliative, short-term oriented programs featuring conditionality and means-testing, towards a rights-based, preventive approach of poverty eradication. Central America invites for such a proposal, considering its countries' blatant inequality and poverty levels, on the one hand, while on the other its existing common market and relative degree of integration could facilitate such undertaking. The paper estimates the costs of covering the entire region's population with a Basic Income, and shows that such a proposal would be feasible, and economically affordable and beneficial, while offering a novel and universally just stance on poverty eradication.

Suggested Citation

  • Krozer, Alice, 2010. "A regional basic income: towards the eradication of extreme poverty in Central America," Sede Subregional de la CEPAL en México (Estudios e Investigaciones) 25938, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
  • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col094:25938
    Note: Incluye Bibliografía
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/25938
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Howard Michael W., 2007. "A NAFTA Dividend: A Guaranteed Minimum Income for North America," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, June.
    2. Standing Guy, 2008. "How Cash Transfers Promote the Case for Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, July.
    3. Seekings Jeremy, 2007. "The Inconsequentiality of Employment Disincentives: Basic Income in South Africa," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, June.
    4. Suplicy Eduardo Matarazzo, 2007. "Basic Income and Employment in Brazil," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, June.
    5. Brière, Bénédicte de la & Rawlings, Laura B., 2006. "Examining conditional cash transfer programs : a role for increased social inclusion?," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 90341, The World Bank.
    6. David Clark & David Hulme, 2010. "Poverty, time and vagueness: integrating the core poverty and chronic poverty frameworks," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 34(2), pages 347-366, March.
    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. Oscar A. Ishizawa & Juan Jose Miranda, 2019. "Weathering Storms: Understanding the Impact of Natural Disasters in Central America," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 181-211, May.
    2. Jiaqi Yang & Geetha Mohan & Supriya Pipil & Kensuke Fukushi, 2021. "Review on basic income (BI): its theories and empirical cases," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(2), pages 203-239, December.

    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. Haagh, Louise, 2011. "Working Life, Well-Being and Welfare Reform: Motivation and Institutions Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 450-473, March.
    2. Fischer Yannick, 2020. "Basic Income, Labour Automation and Migration – An Approach from a Republican Perspective," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 1-034, December.
    3. Offe Claus, 2008. "Basic Income and the Labor Contract," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, July.
    4. Jordan Bill, 2008. "Basic Income and Economic Integration," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-13, January.
    5. Haagh Louise, 2007. "Basic Income, Occupational Freedom and Antipoverty Policy," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-6, June.
    6. Tatiana Britto, 2008. "Los Desafíos del Programa de Transferencias Monetarias Condicionadas en El Salvador, Red Solidaria," Research Report Spanish (Country Study) 9, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    7. Adam Martin & Matias Petersen, 2019. "Poverty Alleviation as an Economic Problem," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(1), pages 205-221.
    8. Mideros Andrés & O’Donoghue Cathal, 2015. "The Effect of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Adult Labour Supply: A Unitary Discrete Choice Model for the Case of Ecuador," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 225-255, December.
    9. Wells Thomas R., 2019. "Just End Poverty Now: The Case for a Global Minimum Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Bassett, Lucy, 2008. "Can conditional cash transfer programs play a greater role in reducing child undernutrition?," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 46687, The World Bank.
    11. Murphy Jason B, 2010. "Baby Steps: Basic Income and the Need for Incremental Organizational Development," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, September.
    12. 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.
    13. Óscar Afonso & Elena Sochirca & Pedro Cunha Neves, 2022. "Robots and Humans: The Role of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in an Endogenous Growth Model," CEF.UP Working Papers 2201, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    14. Sergii Maksymovych, 2017. "Decision-Making in the Household and Material Deprivation," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp604, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    15. Gilroy Bernard Michael & Heimann Anastasia & Schopf Mark, 2013. "Basic Income and Labour Supply: The German Case," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 43-70, July.
    16. Yörük, Erdem & Öker, İbrahim & Şarlak, Lara, 2019. "Indigenous unrest and the contentious politics of social assistance in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Scarlato, Margherita, 2012. "Social Enterprise, Capabilities and Development: Lessons from Ecuador," MPRA Paper 37618, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Manh Hung Do, 2023. "The Role of Savings and Income Diversification in Households’ Resilience Strategies: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 353-388, August.
    19. George Mutasa, 2012. "Demographic, Community and Macroeconomic Effects on Disability Grant Programme Participation," Working Papers 12155, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    20. Oscar Cacho & Leslie Lipper, 2006. "Abatement and Transaction Costs of Carbon-Sink Projects Involving Smallholders," Working Papers 06-13, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ecr:col094:25938. 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: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.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.