Bibliography

Abstract

This article suggests a way of building a comprehensive program that can effectively eliminate unemployment using the employer-of-last-resort (ELR) scheme, which comes from the Minskyan tradition. According to this scheme, the state offers a job to everyone who is willing to work. In response to the many critiques the ELR program has received, we show that it is the best alternative to eliminating unemployment, instituting sound public finance, ensuring social and financial stability, and achieving long-term growth and international economic balances. We also make suggestions with a view of ensuring the efficiency of the ELR institutional design. In this context, we highlight the accountability issue that is largely ignored in the relevant literature, but that is paramount given the state of public finances after the 2008 crisis. We argue that accountability and efficiency should be taken as the core of the ELR project if it is to be politically viable, and they can be addressed alongside the analogy of lending of last resort. In particular, ELR projects should be supervised by a state bank that is set up to ensure the cost-effectiveness of the scheme, along with controls from below. We conduct a simulation of how much such an ELR program would cost for Italy, showing that its gross cost would be less than 2.0 percent of Italian GDP and its net cost would be negative.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2017.1353873

Macroeconomics

Abstract

In this paper we argue that economics itself constitutes one of the main reasons why the human right to work seems to have not been taken seriously since its proclamation. We put forward four main reasons. In the mainstream lexicon, 1) Labour is a cost; 2) Employment is a second rank objective; 3) Individuals are resources holding productive specifications; and 4) Rights are rigidities. If it wants to promote the right to work, economics must produce an alternative discourse where the right to work is not just about fighting unemployment and is about work as much as about people.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12057

Human Rights Macroeconomics

Abstract

Flavia Dantas and L. Randall Wray argue that the emerging conventional wisdom–that the US economy has reached full employment–is flawed. The unemployment rate is not providing an accurate picture of the health of the labor market, and the common narrative attributing shrinking labor force engagement to aging demographics is overstated. Instead, falling prime-age participation rates are the symptom of a structural inadequacy of aggregate demand–a problem of insufficient job creation and stagnant incomes that conventional public policy remedies have been unable to address. The solution to our long-running secular stagnation requires targeted, direct job creation for those at the bottom of the income scale.

https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/full-employment-are-we-ther...

Macroeconomics

Abstract

Public employment programs may affect poverty both directly through the income they provide and indirectly through general-equilibrium effects. We estimate both effects, exploiting a reform that improved the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and whose rollout was randomized at a large (sub-district) scale. The reform raised beneficiary households’ earnings by 14%, and reduced poverty by 26%. Importantly, 86%of income gains came from non-program earnings, driven by higher private-sector (real) wages and employment. This pattern appears to reflect imperfectly competitive labor markets more than productivity gains: worker’s reservation wages increased, land returns fell, and employment gains were higher in villages with more concentrated landholdings. Non-agricultural enterprise counts and employment grew rapidly despite higher wages, consistent with a role for local demand in structural transformation. These results suggest that public employment programs can effectively reduce poverty in developing countries, and may also improve economic efficiency.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w23838

Development Implementation India Macroeconomics Quantitative

Abstract

Despite having a favorable Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for more than fifteen years, Ethiopia is currently faced with exceptional challenging youth unemployment. The youth unemployment and idleness in Ethiopia has contributed to massive social unrest in several Ethiopian urban areas. To calm down the massive instability in the country that were precipitated mainly by the unemployed youth, the Ethiopian government has allocated 0.72 percent of its GDP to resolve the youth unemployment in the country. Realizing that the actions taken by the government will not have a substantial impact, this study has proposed that using the Employer of Last Resort (ELR) economic model in collaboration with Ethiopia’s Technical, Vocational Education and Technical (TVET) institutions, so that the ELR could be used as a road map to create pathways for a smooth transition between classrooms and office or factory jobs. To make the ELR proposal a reality, the study further suggests that the teachers and the curricular of the TVET institution need to be overhauled and reoriented. Local and municipal governments must administer the ELR program in the TVET institutions because they are most familiar with the economic needs of their communities. Based on the assumption that $2.00 USD per day would fulfill basic needs and meets the internationally set poverty line for developing countries, the budget for the 23 million ELR voluntary job seekers was estimated to cost $11.29 billion USD or 18.35 percent (i.e., 11.29/61.54) of Ethiopia’s GDP. Some policy makers in Ethiopia might argue that Ethiopia can’t spend 18 percent of its GDP to resolve the youth unemployment. The argument on the other hand rests that if the Ethiopian government genuinely accepts that employment is a basic right, then, it would be a rational choice to use domestic birr that doesn’t flare up inflation rather than waiting for the inevitable spark of uncontrivable social instability or depend on foreign dominated loans to mitigate youth unemployment in Ethiopia.

https://doi.org/10.18374/ijsm-17-1.1

Africa Inflation Quantitative Urban Youth

Abstract

Long-term unemployment became a severe social problem in Finland after the early 1990s’ depression. Even though Finland experienced a period of robust export-led growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Finnish economy never returned to low unemployment rates of the 1980s, and in peripheral areas unemployment rates of 15–20 percent were not unusual. In the late 1990s, a new debate started to emerge in the Northeastern Kainuu regional council on how to respond to high economic and social costs of peripheral long-term unemployment. This debate initially led to a new kind of full employment experiment that took place in the small municipality of Paltamo in 2009–2013.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46442-8_7

Europe Macroeconomics

Abstract

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), passed in 2005, has been among the developing world’s most ambitious anti-poverty initiatives. By “guaranteeing” 100 days of work annually to every rural household, NREGA sought to advance the Indian constitution’s commitment to securing citizens’ “right to work”. This book is not a technical evaluation of program performance. It offers instead a detailed analysis of the politics surrounding NREGA: the model of political action that motivated its architects, the public advocacy and parliamentary maneuvering involved in its passage, the political dynamics shaping implementation at state and local levels, the institutional constraints on reforming how it operates, and its complex impacts on public policy debates about governance and development as well as on the political capacities of poor people. Based on their extensive – primarily qualitative – field research, the authors examine changing conceptions of rights and the challenges of making states more accountable to their most disadvantaged citizens. Their analysis of the politics of NREGA provides a window onto the inner workings of Indian democracy and the complex character of the Indian state as it attempts to upgrade its social welfare provision to something more in keeping with the enhanced economic stature the country over the past few decades.

https://academic.oup.com/book/12134

Human Rights Implementation India

Abstract

Public works programs can be effective safety nets if they help allocate resources toward poor households. By setting wages lower than market rates public works programs identify poor households reasonably well. When these programs are oversubscribed and lack beneficiary selection rules however, discretion by local politicians can influence their distribution and their effectiveness as safety nets. This paper tests this hypothesis using household survey data on a seasonal public works program in Bangladesh. The results show access to local politicians is a significant determinant of participation, and can increase the relative probability of participation by 110 percent. Participation has a positive impact on food and nonfood consumption of poorer participants. The same is not true for less poor participants. The results suggest rather than relying on local politicians, public works aiming to maximize their impact on poverty should rely on an objective and transparent targeting system that ensures participation of larger numbers of poorer households.

https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8178

Asia Development Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

There has been a major expansion of social security programs in India during the last 15 years or so, along with wider recognition of economic and social rights. This paper discusses five programs that can be seen as partial foundations of a possible social security system for India: school meals, child care services, employment guarantee, food subsidies, and social security pensions. The record of these programs varies a great deal between Indian states, but there is growing evidence that they make an important contribution to human well-being, and also that the achievements of the leading states are gradually spreading to other states as well. Much scope remains for extending these efforts: despite the recent expansion, India’s social security system is still very limited in international perspective. The paper also discusses some general issues of social policy in India, such as the arguments for universalization versus targeting and the value of a rights approach to social security.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.05.035

India Macroeconomics

Abstract

There has been a major expansion of social security programs in India during the last 15 years or so, along with wider recognition of economic and social rights. This paper discusses five programs that can be seen as partial foundations of a possible social security system for India: school meals, child care services, employment guarantee, food subsidies, and social security pensions. The record of these programs varies a great deal between Indian states, but there is growing evidence that they make an important contribution to human well-being, and also that the achievements of the leading states are gradually spreading to other states as well. Much scope remains for extending these efforts: despite the recent expansion, India’s social security system is still very limited in international perspective. The paper also discusses some general issues of social policy in India, such as the arguments for universalization versus targeting and the value of a rights approach to social security.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17302097

Development Health Human Rights India

Abstract

“In response to the continued growth in the number of unemployed people, in 2004 the South African government introduced the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), offering short-term employment and on-the-job training in four different sectors: (1) infrastructure; (2) economics; (3) the environment and culture; and (4) social. In 2015 the EPWP went into the third phase with the aim of creating 2 million employment opportunities annually by 2020”. (…)

http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/eng/OP365_Recognition_of_care_work.pdf

Africa Gender

Abstract

The last twenty years have been a time of intense public debates on social policy in India. There have also been major initiatives, such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, as well as resilient inertia in some fields. This book brings together some of Jean Drèze’s contributions to these debates, along with other short essays on social development. The essays span the gamut of critical social policies, from education and health to poverty, nutrition, child care, corruption, employment, and social security. There are also less predictable topics such as the caste system, corporate power, nuclear disarmament, the Gujarat model, the Kashmir conflict, and universal basic income. The book aims at enlarging the boundaries of social development, towards a broad concern with the sort of society we want to create. The concluding essay, on public-spiritedness and solidarity, argues that the cultivation of enlightened social norms is an integral part of development. “Jholawala” has become a disparaging term for activists in the Indian business media. This book affirms the learning value of collective action combined with sound economic analysis. In his detailed introduction, the author argues for an approach to development economics where research and action are complementary and interconnected.

https://academic.oup.com/book/35106

Development Human Rights India

Abstract

This research work aim to accomplish an empirical study on the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest (EGPP) scheme of Bangladesh. The objective of this study is to find out whether the EGPP program is promoting the livelihood of the poor people or it remains the same as before. A quantitative approach is applied here as research methods, where data is collected from the primary sources through interview technique and KII. The findings reveal that the purchase power of EGPP beneficiaries has significantly changed and food intake frequency has been increased. It is found that before involvement in EGPP 67.5% of interviewees could manage to have meal twice in a day and 25% could have once in a day. After participation in EGPP the scenario has changed; the percentage of people those could manage to have meal once in a day has gone off and people who could have meal twice in a day reduced to 7.5% but sudden change due to increase of purchase capability above 92.5% people are able to have meal three times in a day. A significant improvement is also found in the case of items of food intake, diversification in food items, quality of food intake, quantity of food intake. Besides, it revealed that social status or social acceptance of the poor peoples of the EGPP recipients elevated. Most of the respondents opined positively regarding the improvement of employment scope in the lean season through EGPP program.

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v0i0.85

Asia Development Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

In South Africa, with the advent of democracy, the Expanded Public Works Programme was conceived as an employment strategy by government in order to alleviate poverty and promote a better standard of living for marginalised groups, particularly youth and women in South Africa. This is a qualitative exploratory research in which the data was collected through face-to-face interviews with beneficiaries. The researcher utilised the exploratory research in order to explore the effectiveness of the Zibambele Project at the local level, and to see how it creates employment opportunities for marginalised groups. The key focus of the literature review is on local economic development, with special reference to the poverty alleviation strategies as a guideline for economic growth at local levels. The findings show that the government-led programmes that eliminate poverty at the grassroots level as well as creating employment opportunities for marginalised are crucial. Furthermore, the study shows that the government programmes are more needed in order to tackle poverty and also increase local economic development in South Africa.

https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v9i3(j).1746

Africa Development Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

‘Capital-rich’ economies typically experience Keynesian unemployment, which an ELR program can offset with expenditure that has a multiplier effect. ‘Capital-poor’ economies normally suffer from Marxian unemployment, which an ELR can counter-act with expenditure, first having a multiplier impact, but subsequently developing an accelerator effect, and building up productive capacity.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46442-8_4

Development Macroeconomics

Abstract

Government macroeconomic policy is typically assessed against fiscal accounting imperatives; so called ‘sound’ finance. Modern Monetary Theory, which is underpinned by the principles of chartalism and functional finance, shows that sound finance is not useful for prescriptive policy since it fails to distinguish between (1) a sovereign currency government and non-sovereign currency government and (2) financing (initial finance) and funding (final finance). Instead, the Modern Money/Circuit theoretic approach reframes the debate regarding the appropriate (functional) conduct of fiscal and monetary policy, and is sensitive to specific institutional arrangements. The framework allows for a more informed and robust debate vis-a-vis finance and the Job Guarantee. This chapter engages in this debate by unpacking and extending the arguments of Harvey (2013) and Wray (2013) in the previous edited volume to critically assess the options and implications—macroeconomic and financial—of financing and funding the Job Guarantee for a sovereign currency and non-sovereign currency (Eurozone) government.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46442-8_5

Europe Inflation Macroeconomics

Abstract

Governments have two broad buffer stock options when it comes to price stabilisation:

(a) Unemployment buffer stocks: Under a mainstream NAIRU regime (the current orthodoxy), inflation is controlled using tight monetary and fiscal policy, which leads to a buffer stock of unemployment. This is a very costly and unreliable target for policy makers to pursue as a means for inflation proofing.
(b) Employment buffer stocks: The government exploits the fiscal power embodied in a fiat-currency issuing national government to introduce full employment based on an employment buffer stock approach. The Job Guarantee (JG) model which is central to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an example of an employment buffer stock policy approach.

In this paper, we juxtapose the two buffer stock options from the point of inflation control with a discussion of where they fit into the literature on the Phillips curve and consider the macroeconomic efficiency implications of each. The discussion will consider the implications for the fiscal position of the government arising from each option.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46442-8_3

Australia Macroeconomics Modeling Quantitative

Abstract

This paper examines two key aspects of unemployment–its propagation mechanism and socioeconomic costs. It identifies a key feature of this macroeconomic phenomenon: it behaves like a disease. A detailed assessment of the transmission mechanism and the existing pecuniary and nonpecuniary costs of unemployment suggests a fundamental shift in the policy responses to tackling joblessness. To stem the contagion effect and its outsized social and economic impact, fiscal policy can be designed around two criteria for successful disease intervention–preparedness and prevention. The paper examines how a job guarantee proposal uniquely meets those two requirements. It is a policy response whose merits include much more than its macroeconomic stabilization features, as discussed in the literature. It is, in a sense, a method of inoculation against the vile effects of unemployment. The paper discusses several preventative features of the program.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3025544

Health Macroeconomics

Abstract

There is a body of literature that favors universal and unconditional public assurance policies over those that are targeted and means-tested. Two such proposals—the basic income proposal and job guarantees—are discussed here. The paper evaluates the impact of each program on macroeconomic stability, arguing that direct job creation has inherent stabilization features that are lacking in the basic income proposal. A discussion of modern finance and labor market dynamics renders the latter proposal inherently inflationary, and potentially stagflationary. After studying the macroeconomic viability of each program, the paper elaborates on their environmental merits. It is argued that the “green” consequences of the basic income proposal are likely to emerge, not from its modus operandi, but from the tax schemes that have been advanced for its financing. By contrast, the job guarantee proposal can serve as an institutional vehicle for achieving variousenvironmental goals by explicitly targeting environmental rehabilitation, conservation, and sustainability. Finally, in the hope of consensus building, the paper advances a joint policy proposal that is economically viable, environmentally friendly, and socially just.

https://doi.org/10.14746/prt.2017.2.5

Environmental Sustainability Macroeconomics

Abstract

The neatly packaged synthesis of ideas, principles, and politically motivated rhetorical framing decisions that has come to be known as MMT has much to offer a range of political debates, ranging from fiscal policy and banking reform through to environmental, gender and racial justice. Like the various limbs and organs of the human body, these different offerings may appear to be more or less essential to MMT’s core theoretical catechism, depending on one’s particular vantage point and prior values. Nevertheless, to continue the analogy, it is not unreasonable to view the MMT corpus as being coordinated along two dimensions, and driven by two key forces, much like the human body is coordinated by its cardiovascular and central nervous systems. In particular, MMT’s “brain” is its historical and technical under- standing of the nature and operational dynamics of money, broadly understood as a mode of, and instrument for, social organization, and its “heart” is its full- throated and unapologetic advocacy for a universal right to dignified and meaningful work, ultimately enforced by the state through direct job creation.

https://rohangrey.net/files/jg&ip.pdf

Implementation Macroeconomics

Abstract

Four days after her husband’s murder on April 4, 1968, Scott King returned to Memphis to support the city’s striking sanitation workers. She marched with an estimated 50,000 people before concluding at a rally at the Memphis city hall. Amidst drizzling rain, she reminded her audience of the terrain they had traversed and the journey ahead: “We moved through . . . the period of desegregating public accommodations and on through voting rights, so that we could have political power. And now we are at the point where we must have economic power.” What did that mean to her in real terms? “Every man deserves a right to a job or an income,” she told the crowd of supporters.

Scott King saw economic precarity as not just a side effect of racial subjugation, but as central to its functioning. Political enfranchisement was just the first step. As she explained in 1976, “People couldn’t see the economics of the movement because of the drama. . . . [The] next step was parity in income distribution.” The solution Scott King promoted is an old one, but its time has come: legislation to provide federal governmental guarantees to employment, at living wages, where people are located, and in areas that serve social needs—rather than those of the market.

Such politics and values had been at the heart of black freedom movements since at least the late nineteenth century. Although many histories of welfare state development foreground the importance of Germany under Otto von Bismarck, there was also a contemporaneous black radical tradition of welfare state struggle during Reconstruction. W. E. B. Du Bois called this tradition “abolition democracy,” defined as a focus on creating new democratic institutions to provide safety and social provision while also seeking to eradicate institutions of racial violence.

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/david-stein-why-coretta-scott-ki...

Human Rights North America Racial Justice

Abstract

Unemployment is a chronic feature of capitalist economies, with a host of related ills such as poverty, personal and economic insecurity and social stigma. In much of the developed world, unemployment has never returned to the low levels present before the mid-1970s, and increasingly insecure and part-time work has replaced permanent, full-time employment. Over two million Australians are either officially unemployed, marginally connected to the labour market but desiring work or are underemployed.The policy referred to here as the Job Guarantee (JG), also known as the Employer of Last Resort and Buffer Stock Employment, is a proposal to address unemployment and underemployment directly, through the provision of a blanket offer of employment at the minimum wage for anyone willing and able to work. This thesis seeks to examine in detail the practicality and desirability of the JG as a solution to the problem of scarce and insecure employment.

https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/16650

Australia Macroeconomics

Abstract

“Not many folks remember that the 1963 “March on Washington” was officially named the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” This detail often gets lost amid the important celebration of the general achievement and highlights such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” oration. Indeed, the theme of job creation runs though Dr. King’s writings. Perhaps no single policy could have as great a social and economic impact on the African American community—and the entire country—as a federally funded Job Guarantee for every person ready and willing to work. This is a policy approach that was explicitly supported by Dr. King, and that is currently receiving attention in economic and policy circles”

https://www.global-isp.org/publication/jobs-for-all-another-dream-of-t...

Human Rights North America Racial Justice

Abstract

This article highlights the work of Coretta Scott King in the struggle for governmental guarantees to employment in the 1970s. In the two decades after her husband’s death, Scott King devoted herself to achieving governmental guarantees to employment and disentangling militarism and violence from the economy. For her, this was the continuation of the civil rights movement. Considering the efforts of Scott King highlights the class content of the long civil rights struggle after the 1960s and the contested evolution of neoliberalism. Further, focusing on the unsuccessful efforts of Scott King also reveals the difficulty of achieving legislation to ameliorate the crisis of unemployment, and how racism and patriarchy structured labor markets during this period.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2016.1162570

Gender Human Rights Macroeconomics North America Racial Justice

Abstract

Globalization, demographic trends and technological developments pose important challenges to European labor markets: job quality has deteriorated and precariousness has increased. Austerity measures enforced after the financial crisis have aggravated this trend. We argue that there is a case for appropriate active inclusion policies, complemented by stimulating macroeconomic policies. Using descriptive statistics and a systematic review of the literature, we propose to experiment with Job Guarantee (JG) projects. These projects could provide a macroeconomic stimulus to the economy by enabling everybody who is willing to work to take up a JG job at the minimum wage. Job guarantee projects are not a panacea to all evils. But experience shows that they could help to stop the casualization of the labor market by providing quality jobs and sustainable employment opportunities. As such, JG projects could foster inclusive labor markets. The projects should be financed by redirecting social security (administration) funds, by including JG elements in the European Investment Plan and by using part of the €80 billion which the European Central Bank (ECB) is injecting each month in the euro area. Our proposal aims to curb the labor market divide by making labor markets more “inclusive” through a solid Job Guarantee scheme. JEL codes: J48; E6; J21; J68

https://doi.org/10.22381/pihrm4220168

Macroeconomics

Abstract

Not long ago, when the nation was less wealthy, our expectations were greater. Paradoxically, as national income has increased, expectations have diminished. Neither Democratic presidential candidate proposed the income or job guarantees (JGs) that are compared in this article and that four decades ago were on the political agenda. According to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders’ proposal for more modest guarantees of health care and higher education were”unrealistic” -okay for denmark but not for the United States, despite its somewhat higher per capita income. Perhaps the concern about economic insecurity that was unleashed during the campaign may lead us once again to consider these guarantees against the age-old evils of poverty and unemployment.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1095796016661162

Environmental Sustainability North America Racial Justice

Abstract

La presente tesis que lleva por titulo: Evaluacion de la Ejecucion Presupuestal del Programa Generacion del Empleo Social Inclusivo Trabaja Peru y su influencia en el Desarrollo Economico de la Region San Martin, Periodo 2012- 2014, tiene por objetivo determinar la influencia de la ejecucion presupuestal del Programa Generacion del Empleo Social Inclusivo Trabaja Peru, en el Desarrollo Economico de la Region San Martin durante el periodo 2012-2014. Este estudio le compete una investigacion de tipo no experimental, de diseno correlacional. Asi mismo, la muestra estuvo constituida por el acervo documentario en los periodos 2012, 2013, y 2014, que se encuentran en poder del Gobierno Regional y del INEI. Con el desarrollo de la investigacion se llego a las siguientes conclusiones: Se evidencia similar tendencia, ya que en el periodo 2013 se presento un mayor indice en cuanto a la ejecucion presupuestal del Programa Generacion del Empleo Social Inclusivo Trabaja Peru, lo cual impulso a que varias personas tuvieran acceso a empleos dignos, asimismo en el 2013 la region de San Martin, presento un indice de crecimiento economico equivalente a un 5.01%, ya que el ingreso per capita se incremento, se reducieron el numero de personas desempleadas, y mas personas encontraron la forma para acceder a los servicios basicos. De esta manera se puede afirmar que la hipotesis alterna (Hi) es correcta, ya que se evidencia que la Ejecucion Presupuestal del Programa Generacion del Empleo Social Inclusivo Trabaja Peru influye en el Desarrollo Economico de la Region San Martin, periodo 2012-2014. La aplicacion de programas sociales que contribuyen con el bienestar de la poblacion en general, se relaciona de manera positiva con el desarrollo economico presente en la region de San Martin, ya que se ha evidenciado que muchas personas han mejorado su calidad de vida al contar con un trabajo fijo, que le genere ingresos frecuentes

https://renati.sunedu.gob.pe/handle/sunedu/2840750

Macroeconomics South America

Abstract

We exploit the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to identify exogenous shifts in mothers’ labor force participation and its impact on their children’s educational outcomes. Using child level panel data, we find that a mother’s participation in the labor force increases her children’s time spent in school and leads to better grade progression. These results account for age cohort trends and for differences in time trends by initial levels of economic development at the district and sub-district levels. We find evidence of greater household decision-making power of working mothers as an explanation of our results.

Keywords: Labor, Education, Gender, Bargaining

https://www.jobguarantee.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Afridi-et-al-2...

Gender Implementation India Quantitative Youth

Abstract

We exploit the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to identify exogenous shifts in mothers’ labor force participation and its impact on their children’s educational outcomes. Using child level panel data, we find that a mother’s participation in the labor force increases her children’s time spent in school and leads to better grade progression. These results account for age cohort trends and for differences in time trends by initial levels of economic development at the district and sub-district levels. We find evidence of greater household decision-making power of working mothers as an explanation of our results.

https://izajold.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40175-016-0053-y

Development Gender Human Rights India

Abstract

Most developing countries are faced with high levels of unemployment, poverty, underemployment and inadequate infrastructure. The causes of poverty and unemployment in South Africa are manifold and complex. South Africa is one of the developmental states which gained its independence in 1994. There is a high rate of unemployment, poverty, unskilled workforce, inequality and low quality service delivery in South Africa (SA). Communities across provinces are unhappy about the above mentioned issues and have, over the years, expressed their dissatisfaction through picketing, demonstrations and strikes. SA, as a developmental state, has to balance economic growth and social development. Post 1994, the African National Congress (ANC)-led government promised to address the triple challenges facing the SA economy, namely poverty, unemployment and inequality. The study pursues to identify and describe factors that necessitated the EPWP in SA. It further investigates the performance of provinces during the implementation of the EPWP inorder to understand the current implementation approach. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to obtain data. Published figures from the Department of Public Works (DPW) reports and on the websites of relevant organisations were analysed. The objective was to identify small-medium-micro enterprises (SMMEs) that were created, trainings supported, and work opportunities (WOs) as well as full time equivalents (FTEs) that were created. A questionnaire was disseminated to three officials per four sectors, totaling (twelve) across four provinces namely Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and North West. The officials were from the EPWP implementing bodies and coordinating departments. The questionnaire sought information on how EPWP projects were implemented and reported in the two phases. The implementing bodies were expected to specify their roles, targets and work opportunities that they hoped to create. The correct sampling method and size were chosen based on the approved research proposal and its intention. Challenges experienced by the coordinating bodies, implementing bodies and data managers during the implementation of the EPWP were tabulated. Recommendations and remedial actions to identified challenges were also highlighted. This study proposes interventions with regard to the coordination of the EPWP, training, improved monitoring of projects, political buy-in and allocation of budget that will improve the daily wage rate.

http://hdl.handle.net/10500/21523

Africa Development Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

In the European labour market there is a clear scope for improvement in activity rates. Moreover, sustainable employment is impeded by the pervasiveness of temporary work, self-employment and part-time work. As a consequence there is a clear role for active inclusion policies, complemented by stimulating macroeconomic policies. However, the implementation of appropriate policies, initiated in 2008, never really took off and stagnated due to the austerity measures enforced after the financial crisis. For that reason we propose to experiment with Job Guarantee (JG) projects. On the one hand, JG projects should provide a macroeconomic stimulus to the economy by employing everybody who is out of work in JG jobs at the minimum wage. On the other hand, JG projects could stop the downward trend in job quality and foster inclusive labour markets by providing quality jobs and sustainable employment. We propose to finance the JG Scheme by redirecting social security (administration) funds, by including JG elements in the European Investment Plan (also known as the Juncker Plan) and to spend part of the € 60 billion which the ECB is injecting each month in the Euro Area on job guarantee projects.

https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/85225.html

Europe Macroeconomics

Abstract

In March 2016 almost 21.5 million men and woman in de EU were unemployed. The unemployment rate was 8.8%. The rates are declining, but still a lot of people have no job. Throughout Europe national social security programs provide cash benefits to replace lost income as a result of unemployment (ISSA 2014). Some of these programs are employment-related, some universal and others means-tested. Employment-related programs are based on periodic payments on length of (self-)employment by the employee and/or the employer. In a means-tested program the household resources are measured against a standard of subsistence needs. Only who satisfy the means test receives the benefit. In the Netherlands two programs providing the unemployed people a benefit. The Social Insurance Program is an employment-related program. The amount of the benefit depends on the early salary. The duration of the benefit depends on how long someone has worked, with a max of 37 month. If the benefit is less than the social minimum or the benefit stops, the unemployed person can apply for social assistance, a means-tested supplement.
The unemployment rate in the Netherlands ( May 2016) is 6,4%. But in the past employees and employers misused the Disability Act to receive a higher and permanent benefit for employees who lost their job due to economic crises. After the turn of the century new legislation has blocked this route. Still, a lot of disabled unemployed people are able to work. The prospect is that the number of unemployed (disabled or not) will not decline. This is a burden for the national government and therefore for the welfare state. How to diminish the cost of the unemployment benefit programs. One of the possible solutions is changing both programs into a job guarantee program (JG). The basic JG concept is developed last century by some post-Keynesian economists in the US and Australia, particularly Hyman Minsky (1986), Randall Wray (1998) and Bill Mitchell (1997). A modern JG proposal provides the ability to strengthen both the social and economic foundation of the welfare states.

https://research.hanze.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/16244867/20160613Job_G...

Europe Macroeconomics Quantitative

Abstract

In this article we present the Job Guarantee concept to complement the existing social security system. In the current welfare state, unemployment is high and many people have to rely on unemployment benefits or social assistance. The prognosis is that this will hardly go down in the future. Assuming a natural unemployment rate of 4.25% and an actual medium-term unemployment rate of 5.5 – 6%, the social assistance rate will move towards more or less 5%. That’s a substantial financial burden. With Job Guarantee, we make use of the unutilized labor and production capacity and unutilized earning capacity. For the Netherlands we compare the net public costs of the present social assistance system with and without a Job Guarantee program, and we conclude that by changing unutilized labor capacity into production the welfare state is able to compensate for the weakest point, the low reintegration effectiveness of our system of income guarantee.

https://ejcls.adapt.it/index.php/ejcls_adapt/article/view/275

Europe Macroeconomics Modeling Quantitative

Abstract

The recent exchanges between Ta-Nehisi Coates, Cedric Johnson, and Brian Jones are part of a growing discussion about the exploitation, exclusion, and oppression of black people in the US. Centrally concerned with questions of race and class, these debates draw on a distinguished intellectual pedigree that includes scholars like Cedric Robinson, whose concept of “racial capitalism” emphasizes how “the development, organization, and expansion of capitalist society pursued essentially racial directions.”

Black freedom struggles, acting on this analysis without necessarily giving it the same name, have placed employment and economic sustenance at the core of their agenda since at least Reconstruction. Indeed, arguably no social force in American society has fought as strenuously for these goals as the multifaceted black left.

The Black Panther Party and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin did not agree on many things in 1967, but they both thought the government should ensure that everyone who wanted a job had one. The recent calls for guaranteed employment from both the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Black Youth Project 100 affirm and continue this long history.

https://jacobin.com/2016/03/coates-reparations-welfare-randolph-du-boi...

Health Human Rights North America Racial Justice

Abstract

Women were, in the past, perceived as instruments of development in Africa. This is concretised by the religious roles accorded to them as a gender that can only play a supportive role for men in their communities. They also serve as agents of underdevelopment when contextualised within the South African perspective. The role of women in a selected village, Modimola, North West Province of South Africa is examined in this paper. Due to their participation in EPWP with special focus on the agricultural sector, women were able to earn a living and learn how to embark on subsistence farming in order to alleviate poverty in the village. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 22 female participants during the study and data collected confirm the invaluable roles of women in terms of food production, and engines of sustainable development in the community under study. It is concluded that women in development are indispensable as men are always on the move looking for non-existent jobs in the metropolis. The same explains the futility of ‘determinism’ as agents of role play in society.

https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-59f5e1632

Africa Development Gender Quantitative

Abstract

AbstractPoverty alleviation is a challenge facing most developing countries. This paper reports on one national government strategy, namely the Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP) which was implem…

https://doi.org/10.1080/09765239.2015.11885022

Africa Development

Abstract

In the theoretical framework of classical political economy, including the revisions of Marx and the more recent work of Piero Sraffa and others, the concept of the subsistence wage figures prominently. Here, following a recounting of this concept and demonstrating its significance not only for classical theory but also for larger social concerns, I argue that the “base wage” (as it is sometimes termed) as articulated within a “Job Guarantee” program, is (or should be) comparable to the subsistence wage but requires modification to make it (roughly) equivalent. It will be demonstrated that adherents of the classical approach did not rest their wage theory on a quasi-neoclassical supply–demand approach (with some primitive marginal productivity notion lying behind a supposed demand for labor schedule), but understood wages as socially determined where institutional and historic forces established a normative standard around which market wages gravitated. Such an approach was shared by, among other…

https://doi.org/10.1080/01603477.2015.1075357

Implementation Macroeconomics

Abstract

Discussions of the ‘politically possible’ remind me of a favorite saying: “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.”

At a time when austerity dominates the political discourse, ambitious proposals such as the Job Guarantee and the Employer of Last Resort (Tcherneva 2012) may seem unworkable.

And yet, surveys show that support for the Job Guarantee proposal is widespread. Recent Gallup Poll (Jones 2013) reported support ranging from 72 to 77% for government employment programs and job creation laws to employ the unemployed.

https://www.global-isp.org/wp-content/uploads/PN-108.pdf

Human Rights Macroeconomics

Abstract

Global-ISP.org @GISP_Tweets After the 2008 crisis destroyed the confidence of public and institutional opinion in the received macroeconomic wisdom, the world is once again ready to understand how modern capitalism really works, and from central banks to academic institutions, economic thought has become receptive to a rereading of Hyman Minsky. His contribution is already at the center of the debate on financial stability, but his work on labor market policies, particularly his proposal to give the State the role of “Employer of Last Resort” (ELR) is still being ignored by the mainstream. After decades of virtually disappearing from the economic policy discourse, the concept of full employment is finally back on the agenda as central banks and governments attempt to reduce unemployment through monetary and fiscal policies. All of a sudden, a war on poverty, a fairer income distribution, full employment and financial stability are back on the agenda because this is what the world economy needed after the global financial crisis. However, in a world where, according to the International Labor Organization, the number of unemployed people exceeded 200 million, full employment can only be reached with a deliberate active policy. ELR is the answer.

http://www.global-isp.org/wp-content/uploads/PN-105.pdf

Europe Macroeconomics

Abstract

After the 2008 crisis destroyed the confidence of public and institutional opinion in the received macroeconomic wisdom, the world is once again ready to understand how modern capitalism really works, and from central banks to academic institutions, economic thought has become receptive to a re- reading of Hyman Minsky. His contribution is already at the center of the debate on financial stability, but his work on labor market policies, particularly his proposal to give the State the role of “Employer of Last Resort” (ELR)1 is still being ignored by the mainstream. After decades of virtually disappearing from the economic policy discourse, the concept of full employment is finally back on the agenda as central banks and governments attempt to reduce unemployment through monetary and fiscal policies. All of a sudden, a war on poverty, a fairer income distribution, full employment and financial stability are back on the agenda because this is what the world economy needed after the global financial crisis. However, in a world where, according to the International Labor Organization, the number of unemployed people exceeded 200 million, full employment can only be reached with a deliberate active policy. ELR is the answer.

In a nutshell, the ELR program is a uniform base wage offered to anyone willing to work in substitution of any other unemployment benefit. Hired people are employed in local community projects linked to social needs. In this brief policy note, we cannot address the critiques of the ELR program; we will only focus on its many positive features. In fact, the ELR program helps to immediately reduce poverty and overall demand volatility by eliminating unemployment in a way that does not trigger wage-price inflation spiral. ELR is the only program that encompasses all the different aspects of a labor market policy: unemployment and employability, human capital preservation, misery prevention, income distribution and poverty; it positively affects economic growth on many counts (above all, expanding the workforce employed and employable in the future); and finally, it lowers financial fragility because it improves wage and income distribution in the labor force. In other words, full employment and stability without inflation.

Europe Implementation Inflation Macroeconomics

Abstract

A method of measuring corruption in MGNREGS is to compare the aggregate levels of employment reported in official data (MPR or MIS) with independent measures based on household surveys (Bhalla 2011, Himanshu 2010, Imbert and Papp 2011). We follow this method here and compare MGNREGS employment in official reports to the estimated number of days spent by rural adults on any public works estimated based on NSS Survey data.

The results, presented in Table 1, reveal that in 2007-08 only 51% of reported MGNREGS employment is independently confirmed by the survey data. This is despite the fact that our survey measure includes employment on any public works project.

The gap between official and survey measures suggests large leakages of MGNREGS funds. Interestingly, this gap appears to narrow over time to 71% in 2009-10 and 80% in 2011-12. This is consistent with survey reports which indicate that corruption in MGNREGS decreased, due to improved monitoring and successive reforms in the payment of MGNREGS wages (Dreze 2014, Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar 2014, Banerjee, et al. 2014).

https://www.jobguarantee.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Imbert-and-Pap...

Implementation India Macroeconomics Quantitative

Abstract

A method of measuring corruption in MGNREGS is to compare the aggregate levels of employment reported in official data (MPR or MIS) with independent measures based on household surveys (Bhalla 2011, Himanshu 2010, Imbert and Papp 2011). We follow this method here and compare MGNREGS employment in official reports to the estimated number of days spent by rural adults on any public works estimated based on NSS Survey data. The results, presented in Table 1, reveal that in 2007-08 only 51% of reported MGNREGS employment is independently confirmed by the survey data. This is despite the fact that our survey measure includes employment on any public works project. The gap between official and survey measures suggests large leakages of MGNREGS funds. Interestingly, this gap appears to narrow over time to 71% in 2009-10 and 80% in 2011-12. This is consistent with survey reports which indicate that corruption in MGNREGS decreased, due to improved monitoring and successive reforms in the payment of MGNREGS wages (Dreze 2014, Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar 2014, Banerjee, et al. 2014).

https://www.jobguarantee.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Imbert-and-Pap...

Implementation India Quantitative

Abstract

The study is aimed to characterize the scope of the Program Works Peru on the generation and promotion of employment for the unemployed and underemployed population of the country. The research is quantitative, descriptive and macro-level, based on the documentary review and institutional statistics, taking as time horizon the years 20112014. The results of the study show that the program works Peru contributed potentially, so increased and sustained in the generation and promotion of employment for the unemployed and underemployed population of the urban and rural areas in situation of poverty and extreme poverty in the country: 122 148 Jobs generated in 2700 projects of coastal defenses, health infrastructure, roads and services and irrigation infrastructure; with a total investment of 364 259 327 new soles; aimed at 160 183 beneficiaries, of which 105 848 are women, 54 335 men, 1794 and 41 555 young people with disabilities.

http://www.scielo.org.pe/pdf/comunica/v6n2/a07v6n2.pdf

Implementation South America Urban

Abstract

Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) University of the Witwatersrand The great recession the rich economies entered in 2007 has turned into social devastation in Europe. In France, there is every reason to despair the new rulers holding the reins since June 2012; indeed, the abandonment of workers’ collectives to their fate after half-hearted threats of nationalisation is only the tip of the iceberg. Policies implemented by François Hollande’s government include budgetary austerity on a scale unprecedented since World War II (60 billion euros’ worth of cuts planned over five years), the institutionalising of the European “golden rule” which limits structural deficits to 0.5% of GDP, a “competitiveness” plan which offers firms €20bn in tax credits (€7bn of which are to be funded by a VAT increase) without any counterpart, and the transposition into law of an agreement reached between employers’ organisations and minority trade unions aimed at increasing dramatically external number flexibility on the “labour market”. This profoundly neoliberal orientation is based on choices that need to be analysed. The first is austerity. The deflationary exit strategy from the crisis advocated by the European elites can only lead to a long, painful recession. In the wake of a financial crisis, the private sector needs to get out of debt. If, in addition, the state takes to cutting back its expenditure, the spiral of depression can only get worse.i For four years, the forecasts made by the “Troika” (European Commission, IMF and ECB) have been systematically contradicted by the facts, precisely because of their refusal to contemplate this basic macroeconomic mechanism. Indeed, a recent IMF studyii admits as much. While the IMF used to think that a 1-euro cut in public spending reduces GDP by only 0.5 euro, it has realised that, in fact, it leads to a contraction of activity representing between 0.9 and 1.7 euros. So while austerity is spreading across Europe, there is not the slightest chance of keeping Hollande’s promises about turning the unemployment curve back down again in 2013. And yet, there is nothing “natural” about the scourge of unemployment. The limits of an investment revival Hyman Minsky is the most feted economist since the financial crisis. Since August 2007, the Wall Street Journaliii has been a cheerleader for this posthumous glorification. On the fringes of academia, Minsky had explained that finance generates violent, destabilising cycles. One of the first formulations of his financial instability hypothesis is to be found in an article published in 1973, ‘The Strategy of Economic Policy and Income Distribution’iv. Here, Minsky identifies two anti-unemployment strategies that are richly instructive today. Under the first one, there is a “view that economic growth is desirable, and that the growth rate is determined by the pace of private investment”. This leads to “the emphasis on private investment as the preferred way to achieve full employment”. So the aim of the recovery policy is to ensure that investors’ profit expectations turn back upwards, thus enabling accumulation to restart. This involves tax deductions on investments as well as public procurement (typically, armaments or construction and public works) and subsidies for the construction sector or R&D. He sees numerous weaknesses in this strategy: it leads to a rise in capital’s share of overall income, it nurtures unstable financial relations, it contributes to an increase in wage inequality and the spread of consumerism, and it can also cause inflation. Today, it should be added that these policies are coming up against the limits of capitalist growth. The exhaustion of industrial dynamics in the rich countries, the increased demand for services produced by people for people (health, leisure, education etc.) and the declining environmental conditions come at a time when the centuryold trend towards slower productivity growthv demands a fundamental rethink of what the industrial dynamics may be in future. Fitting public jobs to unemployed capabilities The anti-unemployment strategy preferred by Minsky focuses on public employment. Its central principle is that of the state as the “employer of last resort” (ELR). Under this approach, now advocated notably by the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) economists, the state – or local authorities – pledges to provide employment to all those who are prepared to work at the basic public sector wage rate (and possibly above that rate, depending on the qualifications required for the jobs offered). This “takes the unemployed as they are and fits public jobs to their capabilities” but it is not workfare. Making

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304261138_The_State_as_the_em...

Macroeconomics

Abstract

To mobilize Greece’s severely underemployed labor potential and confront the social and economic dangers of persistent unemployment, we propose the immediate implementation of a direct public benefit job creation program–a Greek “New Deal.” The Job Guarantee (JG) program would offer the unemployed jobs, at a minimum wage, on work projects providing public goods and services. This policy would have substantial positive economic impacts in terms of output and employment, and when newly accrued tax revenue is taken into account, which substantially reduces the net cost of the program, it makes for a comparatively modest fiscal stimulus. At a net cost of roughly 1 percent to 1.2 percent of GDP (depending on the wage level offered), a midrange JG program featuring the direct creation of 300,000 jobs has the potential to reduce the unemployed population by a third or more, once indirect employment effects are taken into account. And our research indicates that the policy would do all this while reducing Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio–which leaves little room for excuses.

https://www.levyinstitute.org/files/download.php?file=ppb_138.pdf&pubi...

Europe Macroeconomics Modeling Quantitative

Abstract

Jan Kregel’s wide-ranging work has covered many issues of direct and contemporary relevance to developing countries, and is marked by his careful attention to both the broad sweep and the detail of policy interventions. His contributions to the issues of financing development, macroeconomic instabilities generated by financial deregulation, including capital account liberalization and how to alter patterns of development toward diversification to higher value added activities, are all well known. But he has also been an insightful advocate of specific types of demand management policies that can play multiple roles in developing economies. One such strategy is of implementing public works as part of employment guarantees, which can then have positive effects on both the demand side of the labor market and the supply-side of production conditions.

https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137450968_7

Implementation India

Abstract

This article examines the impact of austerity policies in seven EU Member States on municipal employment and the ways in which social dialogue can influence consequences for employees. It provides a comparative institutional framework, looking at municipal tasks and powers, and the social dialogue institutions available in the respective countries. In addition, the outcomes of austerity policies are compared with regard to wages, employment levels and the public service provision, as well as the influence of social dialogue institutions on these outcomes. Trade unions and workplace employee representatives face a dilemma, having to choose between concession bargaining and opposition to employer plans in order to preserve public sector employment. Between and within countries there seem to be significant differences in their success. Generally speaking, however, these are tough times for municipal workers, their representatives and citizens dependent on the services municipalities offer.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258914538351

Europe Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

Who deserves what types of entitlements? On what grounds? In this moment of rampant and structural joblessness, there is an increasing critique of universities for their failure to create appropriate routes to employment for their graduates who are borrowing increasing sums of money to attend. Do these good students, who make, what President Obama has dubbed “good choices,” deserve jobs? If so, why only them? Or, with the extreme wealth of the U.S., should these good students, along with the bad, and everyone else, be entitled to a job or income? And what do employment rates for undergraduates have to do with the university anyway?

https://csalateral.org/issue/3/full-employment-for-the-future/

Gender Human Rights North America Racial Justice