{"sourceInsights":[{"id":"102567697","lede":"\"Many people may today be working longer hours than they would wish, while others have no work at all; basic income could encourage shorter hours and thereby release working time for the unemployed. Such an argument invokes microeconomic factors; basic income lets people assert their work preferences and resist constraints on working hours.\"","slug":"basic-income-lets-people-assert-their-true-work-preferences-shaking-constraints-o","title":"Basic income lets people assert their true work preferences, shaking constraints on working hours.","showTitleAsQuote":null,"epistemicStatus":"theoretical","reports":[{"id":"19519421","title":"Basic Income","slug":"basic-income"}],"tags":[{"slug":"efficiency","name":"Efficiency","id":"72743745","lede":"

In general, efficiency refers to maximizing outputs while minimizing inputs.

\n\n

In economic contexts, there are two main types of efficiency: microeconomic efficiency (where system efficiency is understood as maximizing a particular output given available inputs), and the efficient-market hypothesis (a state where asset prices reflect all available information).

\n","ledeExcerpt":"In general, efficiency refers to maximizing outputs while minimizing inputs. \n\nIn economic contexts, there are two main types of efficiency: microeconomic efficiency (where system efficiency is understood as maximizing a particular output given available inputs), and the efficient-market hypothesis (a state where asset prices reflect all available information).","featured":true},{"slug":"employment","name":"Employment","id":"23932807","lede":"","ledeExcerpt":"","featured":null},{"slug":"work-incentives","name":"Work Incentives","id":"100746898","lede":"

Neoclassically-informed economic models — which held sway over policymaking for at least the last 50 years — operate on the assumption that raising taxes discourages work.

\n\n

As a result, policy approaches such as unconditional cash transfers to low-income citizens, or raising marginal tax rates on the wealthy are quickly dismissed by economists, under the reasoning that unconditional cash and higher taxes both reduce work incentives.

\n\n

These assumptions have always been sites of theoretical contestation from heterodox economics, but recently, empirical evidence is mounting against these long-held assumptions. Especially around unconditional cash transfers, case studies are finding that they either have no effect on work, or even stimulate economic activity by reducing the risks to entrepreneurship.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"Neoclassically-informed economic models - which held sway over policymaking for at least the last 50 years - operate on the assumption that raising taxes discourages work, as do unconditional cash transfers.\n\nAs a result, policy approaches such as raising marginal tax rates on the wealthy are quickly dismissed by economists, under the reasoning that doing so would discourage their work, and hurt growth overall. Similarly, cash transfer programs have been tied to work requirements in order to mitigate the risk of discouraging work.\n\nThese assumptions have always been sites of theoretical contestation from heterodox economics, but recently, empirical evidence is mounting against these long-held assumptions. Especially around unconditional cash transfers, case studies are finding that they either have no effect on work, or even stimulate economic activity by reducing the risks to entrepreneurship.","featured":true},{"slug":"work-requirements","name":"Work Requirements","id":"101707762","lede":"","ledeExcerpt":"","featured":null}],"sources":[{"id":"102567464","lede":"The author provides a Keynesian perspective on the macroeconomic effects of cash transfers.","link":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/4538657#:~:text=Basic%20income%20offers%20all%20individuals,to%20the%20availability%20of%20employment.","slug":"basic-income-and-the-right-to-work-a-keynesian-approach","kind":"","title":"Basic Income & the Right to Work: A Keynesian Approach","year":"1999-01-01","researchers":[{"id":"102567460","location":"University of York","name":"William A. Jackson","seoDescription":"","slug":"william-a-jackson"}]}]},{"id":"102567469","lede":"Keynes theorized that redistribution moves cash from the wealthy to lower-income people who are more likely to spend each additional dollar received. On the whole, cash benefits could thus raise aggregate demand.","slug":"from-a-keynesian-perspective-cash-benefits-will-enhance-macroeconomic-efficiency","title":"From a Keynesian perspective, cash benefits will enhance macroeconomic efficiency if they uphold aggregate demand and raise employment.","showTitleAsQuote":null,"epistemicStatus":"theoretical","reports":[{"id":"19519421","title":"Basic Income","slug":"basic-income"}],"tags":[{"slug":"growth","name":"Growth","id":"23932836","lede":"

We define growth as the expansion of wealth in society; growth is about generating a "a bigger pie".

\n\n

Amidst debates over the merits of continued growth, we begin with the idea that all else equal, a society with growth, with more wealth, is preferable to one with less. Without growth, society becomes a zero-sum distributional game: anyone's gain is another's loss. Growth (all else equal) enables shared prosperity.

\n\n

But there is broad agreement that current measures of growth, such as GDP, are inadequate to the task of providing a suitable proxy to guide further growth. Whether devising improved measures that account for missing elements such as sustainability, equity, leisure time, or digital value, or constructing altogether new proxies (OECD's Better Life Index, for example), the conversation about how best to measure, and thus drive, equitable, regenerative, socially desirable growth is a rich field of debate.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"We define growth as the expansion of wealth in society; growth is about generating a \"a bigger pie\".\n\nAmidst debates over the merits of continued growth, we begin with the idea that *all else equal*, a society with growth, with more wealth, is preferable to one with less. Without growth, society becomes a zero-sum distributional game: anyone's gain is another's loss. Growth (all else equal) enables shared prosperity.\n\nBut there is broad agreement that current measures of growth, such as GDP, are inadequate to the task of providing a suitable proxy to guide further growth. Whether devising revised measures, such as Tyler Cowen's notion of wealth plus\" (GDP, plus measures of leisure time, household production, and environmental considerations), or constructing altogether new proxies (OECD's 'Better Life Index), the conversation about how best to measure, and thus drive, equitable, regenerative, socially desirable growth is a rich field of debate.","featured":true},{"slug":"efficiency","name":"Efficiency","id":"72743745","lede":"

In general, efficiency refers to maximizing outputs while minimizing inputs.

\n\n

Demand refers to the amount of a good or service that consumers are both willing and able to buy. Aggregate demand is the total demand for all goods and services across the entire economy.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"Demand refers to the amount of a good or service that consumers are both willing and able to buy. Aggregate demand is the total demand for all goods and services across the entire economy.","featured":null}],"sources":[{"id":"102567464","lede":"The author provides a Keynesian perspective on the macroeconomic effects of cash transfers.","link":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/4538657#:~:text=Basic%20income%20offers%20all%20individuals,to%20the%20availability%20of%20employment.","slug":"basic-income-and-the-right-to-work-a-keynesian-approach","kind":"","title":"Basic Income & the Right to Work: A Keynesian Approach","year":"1999-01-01","researchers":[{"id":"102567460","location":"University of York","name":"William A. Jackson","seoDescription":"","slug":"william-a-jackson"}]}]}],"source":{"id":"102567464","lede":"The author provides a Keynesian perspective on the macroeconomic effects of cash transfers.","link":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/4538657#:~:text=Basic%20income%20offers%20all%20individuals,to%20the%20availability%20of%20employment.","slug":"basic-income-and-the-right-to-work-a-keynesian-approach","kind":"","title":"Basic Income & the Right to Work: A Keynesian Approach","year":"1999-01-01","researchers":[{"id":"102567460","location":"University of York","name":"William A. Jackson","seoDescription":"","slug":"william-a-jackson"}]}}