Bibliography

Abstract

The paper critically reviews the arguments for and against both employment guarantees and income guarantees when viewed as rights-based policy instruments for poverty reduction in a developing economy, with special reference to India. Evidence on India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act does not suggest that the potential for either providing work when needed or reducing current poverty is being realized, despite pro-poor targeting. Instead, work is often rationed by local leaders in poor areas, and the poverty impact is small when all the costs are considered. Decentralized implementation of the right-to-work poses serious challenges in poor places. The option of income support using cash transfers also has both pros and cons. Widely-used methods for finely targeting cash transfers tend to miss many poor people, and discourage those reached from earning extra income. Yet it cannot be presumed that switching to a universal basic income will reduce poverty more than workfare or finely-targeted transfers; that is an empirical question and the answer will undoubtedly vary across settings, belying the generalizations often heard from advocates. Nonetheless, more incentive-neutral, universal and/or state-contingent transfer schemes merit consideration in settings in which existing public spending is skewed against poor people and/or there is scope for raising taxes on the rich.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3208865

Implementation India

Abstract

Amid a recent upsurge in support for a national job guarantee program, L. Randall Wray, Stephanie A. Kelton, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Scott Fullwiler, and Flavia Dantas outline a new proposal for a federally funded program with decentralized administration. Their Public Service Employment (PSE) program would offer a job ”paying a uniform living wage with a basic benefits package” to all who are ready and willing to work. In advance of an upcoming report detailing the economic impact of the PSE, this policy note presents an overview of the goals and structure of the program in the context of current labor market trends and the prospects of poverty reduction.

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789905083.00023

Macroeconomics Modeling Quantitative

Abstract

Mexico is a country of extreme inequality where opposition from politico-economic elites has prevented implementation of redistributive policies that Nicholas Kaldor suggested half a centur…

https://doi.org/10.1080/08911916.2018.1517463

Macroeconomics South America

Abstract

The chapter proposes a job guarantee (JG) program for residents of American Indian reservations to combat chronic poverty and unemployment. The chapter furthers research on the racial wealth and employment gap; and serves as a case-study on the social costs of unemployment and the moral necessity of full employment. The chapter details the social and economic injustice laid upon American Indians from 200 years of US policy geared toward assimilation, termination, and acculturation. This history contextualizes the failing, pro-capitalist, Euro-centric policies of today which struggle to combat chronic poverty and lasting unemployment. Instead these mainstream policies further encroach on American Indian sovereignty. The chapter makes a case for a new progressive approach to development that centers on the non-profit nature of job guarantee proposals to sustain economic growth, enrich cultural development, and strengthen American Indian sovereignty.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66376-0_8

Macroeconomics North America Racial Justice

Abstract

El presente estudio denominado Programa Social de Empleo Temporal Trabaja Perú y la calidad de vida en los pobladores del Distrito de Picsi, Provincia de Chiclayo, Región Lambayeque, 2015, tuvo como objetivo la evaluación del impacto del Programa Social de Empleo Temporal Inclusivo Trabaja Perú en relación al mejoramiento de la calidad de vida en los beneficiarios del distrito de Picsi. El diseño del presente estudio fue no experimental transversal, el cual implicó la medición de las variables, donde se observó la descripción e interpretación de los resultados obtenidos. Al mismo tiempo el estudio implicó la aplicación de encuestas a 134 pobladores del distrito de Picsi, donde 67 de ellos fueron participantes del programa Trabaja Perú. Se obtuvo como resultado que el 60% de la población del distrito de Picsi opinó que el programa les ayudó a conseguir un empleo nuevo, seguidamente con el 40% de las opiniones de los pobladores opinaron que el programa no les ayudó a conseguir un empleo nuevo. Se llegó a concluir que existe una muy buena aceptación con más del 70% de los participantes del programa. Finalmente, se recomienda a las unidades zonales y gerenciales de línea, mejorar de manera continua la supervisión y monitoreo de los proyectos del programa Trabaja Perú con el fin de generar empleos temporales y puedan concluir con las obras en su debido tiempo.

https://doi.org/10.18050/revucvhacer.v7n3a7

Implementation Macroeconomics Quantitative South America

Abstract

The private sector has never adequately dealt with persistent and deep earning inequalities, worker vulnerabilities, and barriers to social mobility. In fact, it can be argued that the private sector’s employment practices are a major source of all of these social problems. Even in times of economic expansion, there are never enough private sector job openings to match the number of job seekers.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-018-0744-5

Macroeconomics

Abstract

Full employment has been part of the policy discourse in the United States since the early twentieth century. One of the most notable proponents of true full employment—defined as an economy in which any person who seeks a job can secure one—was President Franklin D. Roosevelt; his vision of “economic security” for all is a touchstone for full-employment advocates. For Roosevelt, direct hiring programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were great successes during the Great Depression. While they provided much-needed—albeit temporary—relief during the economic catastrophe, their size and transient nature were insufficient to achieve the long-term impact on employment that Roosevelt, and the full-employment supporters that came before and after him, sought.

Today, economists and policymakers, including the governors of the Federal Reserve System, tend to associate “full employment” with a four-to-six percent unemployment rate, using the standard measure of unemployment.4 This measure of unemployment counts workers who do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the previous four weeks, and are currently available for work; it does not count the millions who have stopped actively seeking employment, or those inadequately employed in temporary, seasonal, or other precarious employment situations. The four-to-six percent unemployment rate referred to above is based on a conception defined by economists as the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU). It is noteworthy that this “target” has changed throughout time. Moreover, an economy with these unemployment rates needlessly condemns millions of U.S. workers to unemployment and underemployment, often resulting in severe economic hardship for those left behind by decisionmakers’ policy choices.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/the-federal-job-guarantee-a-policy-to-ac...

Macroeconomics Modeling North America Quantitative

Abstract

The job guarantee (JG) is finally getting the public debate it deserves, according to Pavlina R. Tcherneva, and criticism is expected. Following the Levy Institute’s latest report analyzing the economic impact of a JG proposal and providing a blueprint for its implementation, Tcherneva responds to alarmist claims that the JG is (1) an expensive big-government takeover, (2) unproductive and impossible to manage, (3) dangerously disruptive to the private sector, and (4) inflationary.

https://www.levyinstitute.org/files/download.php?file=op_55.pdf&pubid=...

Macroeconomics

Abstract

The job guarantee was designed to address the problems of unemployment. However, in light of the environmental crisis, it is important to recognize the ways in which this policy proposal may be harnessed to cope with broader issues of social justice and ecological sustainability. This chapter looks specifically at how the vision of a job guarantee program aligns with and promotes the burgeoning movement of degrowth. In this respect, the most important feature of the job guarantee is that it eliminates the profit constraint on employment. With a job guarantee in place, the working class will not be hostage to profit-driven economic growth to secure an income. Under the existing paradigm of global capitalism, the world population faces a trade-off between ecological and economic prosperity. By severing the link between aggregate demand and employment, a job guarantee offers possibilities for an ecologically sustainable future without unemployment. In other words, a job guarantee decouples employment from economic growth and establishes a path for the reconciliation of economic and environmental goals. This chapter discusses the ways in which a job guarantee may be utilized to buttress the social justice and environmental aspirations of degrowth.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66376-0_3

Environmental Sustainability Macroeconomics

Abstract

This inquiry seeks to establish that a job guarantee would animate the non-invidious re-creation of community, challenge the hierarchy which permeates social and economic relations, and facilitate an institutional adjustment toward a more inclusive provisioning process. In so doing, the analysis commences by revealing how the current institutional structure fails to provide a non-invidious provision of the material means of life.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66376-0_11

Implementation Macroeconomics

Abstract

The job guarantee (JG) is a public option for jobs. It is a permanent, federally funded, and locally administered program that supplies voluntary employment opportunities on demand for all who are ready and willing to work at a living wage. While it is first and foremost a jobs program, it has the potential to be transformative by advancing the public purpose and improving working conditions, people’s everyday lives, and the economy as a whole. This working paper provides a blueprint for operationalizing the proposal. It addresses frequently asked questions and common concerns. It begins by outlining some of the core propositions in the existing literature that have motivated the JG proposal. These propositions suggest specific design and implementation features. (Some questions are answered in greater detail in appendix III). The paper presents the core objectives and expected benefits of the program, and suggests an institutional structure, funding mechanism, and project design and administration.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3155289

Implementation Macroeconomics

Abstract

The idea that government should act as employer of last resort (ELR) is an old one. That idea is often referred to nowadays as “job guarantee”. Many ELR schemes to date have been confined to the public sector. There is no good reason for that limitation: i.e. the private sector should use ELR labour as well. A second common characteristic of ELR schemes has been that (like the WPA in the US in the 1930s) they involve specially set up projects or schemes as distinct from subsidising temporary employees into work with EXISTING employers. The “existing employer” option is preferable. Once those two common defects in ELR are removed, the result is a system where the unemployed are subsidised into temporary and relatively unproductive jobs with existing employers till better jobs appear. And that in turn is what the unemployed tend to do in a totally free market: a scenario where there are no minimum wage laws and unemployment benefit, and where the unemployed tend to get temporary low paid jobs in both public and private sectors pending the appearance of better jobs. In contrast to a free market, under ELR, take home pay is maintained at socially acceptable levels. Assuming that free markets maximise GDP, it follows that the sort of ELR system advocated here will also maximize GDP. That free market style ELR system actually resembles the ELR system that the UK has at the time of writing, namely the Work Programme. The latter “free market” / Work Programme system is not free of faults, but as long as ELR employees do not displace regular employees to too great an extent, that “free market” ELR system is better than traditional ELR. Keywords. Employer of last resort, Job guarantee, Work project admistration. JEL. J60, J63, J64, J68.

https://doi.org/10.1453/jepe.v4i1.1237

Macroeconomics

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 study highlights the lack of structural transformation and the slow growth in productive jobs. In the case of women, the labour market trends even pointed to decreasing workforce participation. The author examines the effectiveness of labour market and sectoral policies in addressing these problems, notably the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) public works programme and the “Make in India” sectoral policy.

https://www.ilo.org/publications/role-labour-market-and-sectoral-polic...

Development Gender India Macroeconomics

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