The Work Versus Welfare Trade-off: 2018

The Work Versus Welfare Trade-off: 2018
Author: Michael D. Tanner
Publisher: Cato Institute
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2013-08-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1939709237

In 1995, the Cato Institute published a groundbreaking study, The Work Versus Welfare Trade-Off, which estimated the value of the full package of welfare benefits available to a typical recipient in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It found that not only did the value of such benefits greatly exceed the poverty level but, because welfare benefits are tax-free, their dollar value was greater than the amount of take-home income a worker would recieve from an entry-level job. Since then, many welfare programs have undergone significant change but welfare benefits continue to outpace the income that most recipients can expect to earn from an entry-level job, and the balance between welfare and work may actually have grown worse in recent years. This white paper shows that the current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work. If Congress and state legislatures are serious about reducing welfare dependence and rewarding work, they should consider a number of policy changes, including ways to shrink the gap between the value of welfare and work by reducing current benefit levels and tightening eligibility requirements.

For the Benefit of All: Fiscal Policies and Equity-Efficiency Trade-offs in the Age of Automation

For the Benefit of All: Fiscal Policies and Equity-Efficiency Trade-offs in the Age of Automation
Author: Mr. Andrew Berg
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2021-07-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513592963

Many studies predict massive job losses and real wage decline as a result of the ongoing widespread automation of production, a trend that may be further aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis. Yet automation is also expected to raise productivity and output. How can we share the gains from automation more widely, for the benefit of all? And what are the attendant equity-efficiency trade-offs? We analyze this issue by considering the effects of fiscal policies that seek to redistribute the gains from automation and address income inequality. We use a dynamic general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition, including a novel specification linking corporate power to automation. While fiscal policy cannot eliminate the classic equity-efficiency trade-offs, it can help improve them, reducing inequality at small or no loss of output. This is particularly so when policy takes advantage of novel, less distortive transmission channels of fiscal policy created by the empirically observed link between corporate market power and automation.

Universal Basic Income: Debate and Impact Assessment

Universal Basic Income: Debate and Impact Assessment
Author: Maura Francese
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2018-12-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 148438881X

This paper discusses the definition and modelling of a universal basic income (UBI). After clarifying the debate about what a UBI is and presenting the arguments in favor and against, an analytical approach for its assessment is proposed. The adoption of a UBI as a policy tool is discussed with regard to the policy objectives (shaped by social preferences) it is designed to achieve. Key design dimensions to be considered include: coverage, generosity of the program, overall progressivity of the policy, and its financing.

ANDREW YANG $1,000 a Month

ANDREW YANG $1,000 a Month
Author: FREEDOM DIVIDEND
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0359757014

In this concise overview of Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, readers will discover his unique biography (up-to-date from Wikipedia) as well an analysis of his UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME plan. The UBI or Freedom Dividend is the basic pillar of Yang Yang's presidential run and guaranteeing everyone $1,000 a month has been done on some small and large scale around the world.

Tax Composition and Growth

Tax Composition and Growth
Author: Mr.Santiago Acosta Ormaechea
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2012-10-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 161635917X

We investigate the relation between changes in tax composition and long-run economic growth using a new dataset covering a broad cross-section of countries with different income levels. We specifically consider 69 countries with at least 20 years of observations on total tax revenue during the period 1970-2009—21 high-income, 23 middle-income and 25 low-income countries. To our knowledge this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date dataset on tax composition and growth. We find that increasing income taxes while reducing consumption and property taxes is associated with slower growth over the long run. We also find that: (1) among income taxes, social security contributions and personal income taxes have a stronger negative association with growth than corporate income taxes; (2) a shift from income taxes to property taxes has a strong positive association with growth; and (3) a reduction in income taxes while increasing value added and sales taxes is also associated with faster growth.

Welfare Doesn't Work

Welfare Doesn't Work
Author: Leah Hamilton
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2020-02-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030371212

This book explores the incentives and effects of modern welfare policy, contrasted with outcomes of global basic income pilots in the past seventy years. The author contends that paternalistic and counterproductive eligibility rules in the modern American welfare state violate the human dignity of the poor and make it nearly impossible to escape the “poverty trap.” Furthermore, these types of restrictions are absent from expenditures aimed at middle and upper-income households such as mortgage interest deductions and tax-sheltered retirement accounts. Case examples from the author's years as a front-line social worker and interviews with basic income pilot recipients in Ontario, Canada, are woven throughout the book to better illustrate the effects of the current system and the hidden potential of more radical alternatives such as a universal basic income.

Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Model Rules of Professional Conduct
Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2007
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781590318737

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

A Nation Divided: The Conflicting Personalities, Visions, and Values of Liberals and Conservatives

A Nation Divided: The Conflicting Personalities, Visions, and Values of Liberals and Conservatives
Author: Anthony Walsh
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2019-10-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1622737350

Activists have long claimed that “the personal is political”, but this book posits the converse: that the political is personal. The United States today is bitterly divided. It is less an aspirational melting pot of immigrants and more a salad bowl made up of distinct, often clashing flavors. The successive elections of two divisive presidents—one committed to the perennial leftist dream of “fundamental change” and the other to a conservative vision of “Making America Great Again”—have exacerbated what is arguably the greatest rift in politics since the election of Abraham Lincoln. Taking inspiration from Coleridge’s belief that all humans are temperamentally destined to follow the path of Plato the Idealist or Aristotle the Realist, this book examines the political divide in terms of these temperamental differences. Liberals’ and conservatives’ views of human nature have a large bearing on the political policies they espouse, but their temperaments and personalities have the most significant impact. This book analyses the personality traits of liberals and conservatives in terms of the “Big Five” model—openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Conservatives are found in almost all studies to be more conscientious, agreeable, and extroverted, while liberals are found to be more open to new experience and neurotic. The political divisions I explore in this book are all essentially fueled by personality differences. There is a deepening divide between liberals and conservatives in the battle for America’s soul: one side seeks to steer the nation sharply to the left into socialist selfdom, whereas the other side desires a wealthy and free America under the watchful eye of God’s providence. A preponderance of academic texts belongs to the liberal tradition. Conservatives have long lacked a comparable intellectual tradition of their own, although an incipient one is now beginning to form. This book, while maintaining a measure of scholarly distance, is unashamedly written from a conservative point of view.

Handbook of Approach and Avoidance Motivation

Handbook of Approach and Avoidance Motivation
Author: Andrew J. Elliot
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 684
Release: 2013-05-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1135703655

Of the many conceptual distinctions present in psychology today, the approach-avoidance distinction stands out as one of, if not the, most fundamental and basic. The distinction between approach and avoidance motivation has a venerable history, not only within but beyond scientific psychology, and the deep utility of this distinction is clearly evident across theoretical traditions, disciplines, and content areas. This volume is designed to illustrate and highlight the central importance of this distinction, to serve as a one-stop resource for scholars working in this area, and to facilitate integration among researchers and theorists with an explicit or implicit interest in approach and avoidance motivation. The main body of this volume is organized according to seven broad sections that represent core areas of interest in the study of approach and avoidance motivation, including neurophysiology and neurobiology, and evaluative processes. Each section contains a minimum of four chapters that cover a specific aspect of approach and avoidance motivation. The broad applicability of the approach-avoidance distinction makes this Handbook an essential resource for researchers, theorists, and students of social psychology and related disciplines.

Classics in the Theory of Public Finance

Classics in the Theory of Public Finance
Author: Richard A. Musgrave
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1958-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1349234265

This book was prepared mainly for specialists on the assumption that it would provide the background to an important neglected field of discussion in public finance. Since it was first published in 1958, the theory of public goods and its implications for public policy have become incorporated in the main body of the economic analysis of public finance in the literature. A glance at the footnotes of some of the standard textbooks on public finance indicates that this assembly of articles has not been in vain. Probably the most influential part of this collection has been the papers concerned with the theory of public expenditure, which contains two closely related elements. The first is as a part of welfare economics: under what conditions can Pareto optimality be achieved in an economic system in which some goods supplied are indivisible? The other strand of thought is concerned with the positive theory of the public sector: how can economic analysis be used in order to explain how the size and composition of the budget is actually determined?