by Karl Widerquist | Jul 23, 2013 | Research
Wolfgang Müller – BI News
Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman discusses in this article the effect of technological development on unemployment for low skills as well as high skills workers. This effect can be seen everywhere in the world and increases inequality. He concludes that the old dogma of education “is no longer the answer to rising inequality“. A “strong social safety net” net is required, which guarantees a minimum income.
Krugman, Paul “Sympathy for the Luddites?” New York Times, June 13, 2013
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 23, 2013 | Research
Abstract: How to stimulate employment and the shift from agriculture to industry in developing countries, with their young, poor, and underemployed populations? A widespread view is the poor have high returns to investment but are credit constrained. If so, infusions of capital should expand occupational choice, self-employment, and earnings. Existing evidence from established entrepreneurs shows that grants lead to business growth on the intrinsic margin. Little of this evidence, however, speaks to the young and unemployed, and how to grow employment on the extensive margin — especially transitions from agriculture to cottage industry. We study a large, randomized, relatively unconditional cash transfer program in Uganda, one designed to stimulate such structural change. We follow thousands of young adults two and four years after receiving grants equal to annual incomes. Most start new skilled trades. Labor supply increases 17%. Earnings rise nearly 50%, especially women’s. Patterns of treatment heterogeneity are consistent with credit constraints being relieved. These constraints appear less binding on men, as male controls catch up over time. Female controls do not, partly due to greater capital constraints. Finally, we go beyond economic returns and look for social externalities. Poor, unemployed men are commonly associated with social dislocation and unrest, and governments routinely justify employment programs on reducing such risks. Despite huge economic effects, we see little impact on cohesion, aggression, and collective action (Peaceful or violent). This challenges a body of theory and rationale for employment programs, but suggest the impacts on poverty and structural change alone justify public investment.
Blattman, Christopher, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez “Credit Constraints, Occupational Choice, and the Process of Development: Long Run Evidence from Cash Transfers in Uganda,” the Social Science Research Network, May 20, 2013
by BINews | Jul 23, 2013 | Research
[BI News – August 2013, BIKN contributed to this report]
A Korean academic journal, Marxism 21, published a special edition on basic income entitled, “Basic Income and Issues of Alternative Economic Strategies.” Marxism 21 is a quarterly academic journal published by the Institute for Social Sciences of Gyeongang National University (of South Korea) with financial support from the Korean Research Foundation. The special issue included the following two papers.
Nam Hoon Kang, “Precarious Workers and Basic Income”
ABSTRACT: This paper compares selective income support policy with basic income for precarious workers. In 2012, there were 17,027,000 precarious workers in Korea, which is about 62% of the total economically-active population. Under this situation, a basic income policy is more suitable than selective income support. If there were perfect information and no administrative costs, selective income support policy could have exactly the same economic effects as basic income. But given those constraints, it is impossible for selective income policy to have the same economic effects as basic income. The former has more administrative costs, blind spots, moral hazards, bad transition effects, lower labor incentives and labeling effects. If most of the population are precarious workers, basic income is more appropriate not only economically but also politically.
Popho E. S. Bark-Yi, “The System of Sexuality and Basic Income”
ABSTRACT: This paper suggests that the ideological idea that equates women to sexual objects, not to sexual subjects, is still pervasive in South Korean culture. The author argues that this idea puts women in an inferior position to men in social, economic, and political spheres. Arguing for this idea’s deconstruction, the author introduces the term ‘system of sexuality’. This highlights the key feature of the current system, in which relationships between women and men are deeply intertwined with and sustained by sexuality, economics and politics. Basic income implies unconditional cash payment to every individual regardless of gender, age, marital status, employment status or wealth. Negotiation power in relationships partially but significantly depends on one’s degree of economic independence. Women’s economic status, nevertheless, has been heavily weakened due to the heterosexual male-oriented economic system as well as the marriage system. Basic income which guarantees each and every woman a certain level of income will offer a meaningful contribution to enhance women’s negotiation power within the current system of sexuality.
Hoon Kang, Nam, and Popho E. S. Bark-Yi, “Special Issue: Basic Income and Issues of Alternative Economic Strategies” Marxism 21, vol. 30, 2013 is online in English
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 22, 2013 | Research
[Wolfgang Müller – BI News]
Allan Sheahen
In this article, Al Sheahen argues that the labor market has changed. Full employment is very unlikely in the future. Globalization and improvement of technology will eliminate more jobs. This development demands a break of “the link between work and income” in order to avoid poverty. We need to recognize that people do not need jobs but income. Sheahen concludes that one useful tool is a basic income guarantee, which would provide income security but also economic freedom and other advantages.
Al Sheahen is the author of The Basic Income Guarantee: Your Right to Economic Security.
Sheahan, Allan, “Jobs are not the answer,” The Gilmer Mirror, June, 2013
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 20, 2013 | Research
[Wolfgang Müller – BI New]
A campaign for an unconditional basic income in Switzerland claims to have achieved the required signatures for a nationwide vote. This article illustrates the work of the campaigners and their experiences along with some of the controversy about the issue in Switzerland.
Geiser, Urs “Basic income for all. Old utopian revived on Swiss streets,” swissinfo.ch, June 13, 2013
The committee presenting its initiative to the public in April 2012
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 19, 2013 | Research
The left-wing French journal Mouvements devoted its entire Spring 2013 issue to basic income. This substantial volume includes no less than 20 papers on the various aspects of basic income. While most authors are very much in favour of it, some are more skeptical. Sociologist Bernard Friot, for instance, argues in favour of a complex “universal wage” system, in which the guaranteed income would not be disconnected from one’s qualifications. The issue also includes a micro-simulation for the implementation of a basic income in France, by economist and basic income activist Marc de Basquiat. Furthermore, the editors have interviewed two prominent academic figures, sociologist Robert Castel and philosopher Philippe Van Parijs. Castel insists on the fact that paid work, i.e. the labour market, remains of paramount importance for social recognition and self-esteem, and he does not endorse basic income. Van Parijs, by contrast, explains why he supports it, and how it connects to his reflections about green politics.
Full references: Un revenu pour exister (Simon Cottin-Marx, Julie Garda & Baptiste Mylondo eds.), Special issue of ‘Mouvements. Des idées et des luttes’ (Paris), n° 73, Spring 2013, 190p.
