Showing 1 - 10 of 183
This paper investigates the optimal income transfer problem at the low end of the income distribution. The government maximizes a social welfare function and faces the traditional equity-efficiency trade-off. The paper models labor supply behavioral responses along the intensive margin (hours or...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014153982
Developing country governments are increasingly implementing cash assistance programs to combat poverty and inequality. This paper examines the potential tradeoffs between targeting these transfers towards low income households versus providing universal cash transfers, also known as a Universal...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012912173
This paper considers the role of policy in an AI-intensive economy (interpreting AI broadly). It emphasizes the speed of adoption of the technology for the impact on the job market and the implications for inequality across people and across places. It also discusses the challenges of enacting a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012918072
Should developing countries give everyone enough money to live on? Interest in this idea has grown enormously in recent years, reflecting both positive results from a number of existing cash transfer programs and also dissatisfaction with the perceived limitations of piecemeal, targeted...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012891342
We discuss the potential role of Universal Basic Incomes (UBIs) in advanced countries. A feature of advanced economies that distinguishes them from developing countries is the existence of well developed, if often incomplete, safety nets. We develop a framework for describing transfer programs,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012893131
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is intended to encourage work. But EITC-induced increases in labor supply may drive wages down, shifting the intended transfer toward employers. I simulate the economic incidence of the EITC under a range of plausible supply and demand elasticities. In all of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013152734
The negative income tax proposed by Milton Friedman represents one of the fundamental ideas of modern welfare policy. However, the academic literature has raised two difficulties with it, one challenging its purported work incentives and the other suggesting the possible superiority of work...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013246045
A substantial literature addresses the design of transfer programs and policies, including the negative income tax, other means-tested transfers, the earned income tax credit, categorical assistance, and work inducements. This work is largely independent of that on the optimal nonlinear income...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012761400
Universal basic income (UBI) is an increasingly popular policy proposal but there is no evidence regarding its longer-term consequences. We study UBI in a general equilibrium model with imperfect capital markets, labor market shocks, and intergenerational linkages via skill formation and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013295839
Starting in 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend allows each full-time resident in Alaska, including infants born in the qualifying year, to receive a sizable dividend. This dividend, which represents a form of a Universal Basic Income on a small scale, could alter incentives surrounding...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013310153