by Yannick Vanderborght | Nov 11, 2010 | Research
FITZROY, Felix & NOLAN, Michael (2010), ‘Relative Income, Redistribution and Well-being’, Discussion Paper No. 5241, October 2010, Bonn (DE): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), iza@iza.org, paper available at https://ftp.iza.org/dp5241.pdf
In a model with heterogeneous workers and both intensive and extensive margins of employment, the authors consider two systems of redistribution: a universal basic income, and a categorical unemployment benefit. Well-being depends on own-consumption relative to average employed workers’ consumption, and concern for relativity is a parameter that affects model outcomes. While labour supply incurs positive marginal disutility, the authors allow negative welfare effects of unemployment. They also compare Rawlsian and utilitarian welfare in general equilibrium under the polar opposite transfer systems, with varying concern for relativity. Basic income Pareto dominates categorical benefits with moderate concern for relativity in both cases.
by Yannick Vanderborght | Nov 11, 2010 | News
Saskatchewan is one of few provinces in Canada that does not have a formally adopted and detailed plan to tackle poverty. During the International Week for the Elimination of Poverty (17 – 23 October) a new network called Poverty Free Saskatchewan released a discussion paper calling upon the provincial government to develop such a plan, in collaboration with people living in poverty and other community sectors. This paper is entitled “Let’s Do Something about Poverty” and can be found at https://www.povertyfreesask.ca/
Further information: Jim Mulvale, Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina
jim.mulvale@uregina.ca
by Yannick Vanderborght | Nov 11, 2010 | News
The leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Yukon (one of Canada’s three Federal territories), Steve Cardiff, has put forward a notice of motion for the Yukon Government to introduce a Guaranteed Minimum Annual Income Allowance. According to the official report from Yukon’s legislative assembly, he urged “the Yukon government to implement a guaranteed minimum annual income allowance for all eligible Yukon citizens as recommended by Conservative Party Senator Hugh Segal, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, the Macdonald Commission, the National Council of Welfare, the Special Senate Committee on Poverty and the federal working paper on social security, which would:
(1) expand human dignity;
(2) end poverty;
(3) save on the costs of hospitals, prisons and police work;
(4) eliminate or significantly reduce the burden on the social assistance system;
(5) be recoverable through the personal income tax systems for those earning over a certain amount; and
(6) simplify administration and reduce administrative costs.”
Further information: www.legassembly.gov.yk.ca
by Yannick Vanderborght | Nov 11, 2010 | News
USBIG reports that this October, the Brazilian Instituto pela Revitalização da Cidadania (ReCivitas) has distributed another 30 Brazilian Reals (about US$17.93) to 77 residents of the village of Quantinga Velho in the state of Paulo, Brazil. This payment marks the second anniversary of the ReCivitas project to distribute a basic income to a widening group of residents. The project is funded entirely by private donations. The payment is not a true basic income because it goes only to 77 people out of Brazil’s population of nearly 200 million, but it is the kind of implementation of the basic income model that is possible with access only to small private donations.
The organizers of ReCivitas see this project as a small way to take action to implement the basic income and to show how it can work. A basic income of less than US$18 per month might seem insignificantly small by Western standards, but given the level of poverty in Quatinga Velho, this amount is very significant to those who receive it.
If you would like to donate to Recivitas, please contact ReCivitas Instituto pela Revitalizacao da Cidadania <recivitas@recivitas.org.br>
by Yannick Vanderborght | Nov 10, 2010 | News
USBIG reports that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) renewed its commitment to the Basic Income Grant (BIG) in a recently published document. It proposed an inflation-linked BIG and a comprehensive social security system focusing on redistribution, financed by increased corporate taxes. An article on COSATU’s recent release is online at:
https://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article660907.ece/Do-away-with-private-schools
