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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Piketty Observation Against The Institutional Background: How Natural Is This Natural Tendency And What Can We Do About It?, Karl Widerquist May 2015

The Piketty Observation Against The Institutional Background: How Natural Is This Natural Tendency And What Can We Do About It?, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

Thomas Piketty’s recent book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, provides a great deal of empirical support for the observation that the rate of return on capital (r) is greater than the growth rate of the economy as a whole (g); i.e. “r > g”. From this observation, Piketty derives two important insights: entrepreneurs eventually become rentiers, and except during unusual circumstances, inequality tends to rise over time. This paper views Piketty’s observation against the institutional setting that has prevailed over the period of his study and makes two additional observations. First, whether Piketty’s two insights follow from his observation …

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The Basic Income Grant As Social Safety Net For Namibia: Experience And Lessons From Around The World, Karl Widerquist Sep 2013

The Basic Income Grant As Social Safety Net For Namibia: Experience And Lessons From Around The World, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

This paper discusses strategies for providing a social safety net and argues that the Basic Income Grant (BIG) is the best way forward for Namibia. BIG is a regular, unconditional income given to all individuals as a right of citizenship. This paper draws on international experience from countries (such as the United States, Brazil, India, Kenya, and others) that have experimented with BIG or employed some form of cash transfer. It compares these experiences with the more traditional targeted approach, in which recipients are required to work unless they can show they are unable to work or unable to find …

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The Basic Income Guarantee And The Goals Of Equality, Efficiency, And Environmentalism, Karl Widerquist, Michael A. Lewis Dec 2008

The Basic Income Guarantee And The Goals Of Equality, Efficiency, And Environmentalism, Karl Widerquist, Michael A. Lewis

Karl Widerquist

The most important issue in equality – if not in all economic policy – is the persistence of poverty. This chapter argues that anti-poverty policy needs to move away from the categorical approach towards universalism, specifically in the form of a Basic Income Guarantee. This chapter argues that the Basic Income Guarantee, in any of its various versions is the most efficient and comprehensive method to attack poverty. It can also be used as part of a strategy for environmental protection.

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Problems With Wage Subsidies: Phelps's Economic Discipline And Undisciplined Economics, Karl Widerquist Dec 2007

Problems With Wage Subsidies: Phelps's Economic Discipline And Undisciplined Economics, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

This paper discusses problems with wage subsidy proposals, specifically focusing on the proposal in Rewarding Work by Edmund Phelps. It shows that the book uses one price theory to argue that the whole benefit of a wage subsidy will go to workers (rather than firms or consumers), but it uses an opposing price theory to argue against the Earned Income Tax Credit, unions and public jobs. These and other inconsistencies in the book make it a weak argument for its conclusions.

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A Failure To Communicate: What (If Anything) Can We Learn From The Negative Income Tax Experiments?, Karl Widerquist Dec 2004

A Failure To Communicate: What (If Anything) Can We Learn From The Negative Income Tax Experiments?, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

The U.S. and Canadian governments conducted five negative income tax experiments between 1968 and 1980. The labor market findings of these experiments were an advance for understanding the effects of a basic income guarantee, but their conclusiveness is often overstated. A review of nonacademic articles on the experiments reveals poor understanding of the results. One often overlooked cause of this misinterpretation was the failure of researchers to make clear that the experiments could not estimate the demand response and therefore could not estimate the market response to the program. Although the evidence does not amount to an overwhelming case either …

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A Retrospective On The Negative Income Tax Experiments: Looking Back At The Most Innovative Field Studies In Social Policy, Karl Widerquist Dec 2004

A Retrospective On The Negative Income Tax Experiments: Looking Back At The Most Innovative Field Studies In Social Policy, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

No abstract provided.

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