scholarly journals Universal basic income and skill‑ biased technological change

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
José Coelho

In the last decades, income inequality has been on the rise in the U.S. The growing skill premium suggests the pivotal role of skill‑ biased technological change (SBTC) in promoting the observed increase in inequality levels. In this context, labor income tax structures have been central to the policy debate. We have developed an overlapping generations model to perform a welfare evaluation of Universal basic income (UBI) tax structures and verify how these interact with SBTC. I find that an UBI system would have improved social welfare in 2010 when compared to the existing tax system and determine that this result is primarily motivated by SBTC.

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
Valter Nóbrega

In this paper, we look at the relationship between Investment Specific Technological Change (ISTC) and optimal level of labor income progressivity. We develop an incomplete markets overlapping generations model that matches relevant features of the US economy and find that the observed drop in the relative price of investment since the 1980’s leads optimal progressivity to increase. This result hinges on ISTC increasing the wage premium through an increase in the variance of the permanent component of labor income. This result is supported by recent findings in the literature that highlight the increasing role of the permanent component of labor income in the observed increase in income inequality.


2009 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Conesa ◽  
Sagiri Kitao ◽  
Dirk Krueger

We quantitatively characterize the optimal capital and labor income tax in an overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic, uninsurable income shocks and permanent productivity differences of households. The optimal capital income tax rate is significantly positive at 36 percent. The optimal progressive labor income tax is, roughly, a flat tax of 23 percent with a deduction of $7,200 (relative to average household income of $42,000). The high optimal capital income tax is mainly driven by the life-cycle structure of the model, whereas the optimal progressivity of the labor income tax is attributable to the insurance and redistribution role of the tax system. (JEL E13, H21, H24, H25)


2020 ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Ana Ferreira

Since the 1980s, income inequality has increased markedly and has reached the highest level ever since it started being recorded in the U.S. This paper uses an overlapping generations model with incomplete markets that allows for household heterogeneity that is calibrated to match the U.S. economy with the purpose to study how skill-biased technological change (SBTC) and changes in taxation quantitatively account for the increase in inequality from 1980 to 2010. We find that SBTC and taxation decrease account for 48% of the total increase in the income Gini coefficient. In particular, we conclude that SBTC alone accounted for 42% of the overall increase in income inequality, while changes in the progressivity of the income tax schedule alone accounted for 5.7%.


2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 1350004 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAFAL KIERZENKOWSKI ◽  
ISABELL KOSKE

Despite a general trend of increasing labor income inequality, there have been differences in the timing, intensity and even direction of these changes across OECD countries. These stylized facts have led to numerous studies about the main determinants of labor income inequality and, as a result, a significant revision of the previous consensus about the key drivers. The most researched channels include skill-biased technological change, international trade, immigration, education as well as the role of labor market policies and institutions.


Author(s):  
Christophe Feder

The smart specialization strategy is a cornerstone in the EU policy. The smart specialization policy and the entrepreneurial discovery process is formalized in order to generalize and implement the smart specialization concept. The main conclusion of the proposed theoretical framework is that the smart specialization strategy is efficient if it increases the productivity of the largest factor in the region. Starting from the biased technological change notion, the proposed theoretical framework shows the pivotal role of the university for the efficient implementation of the smart specialization strategy not only in the short and medium term but also in the long term.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 882-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Afonso ◽  
Manuela Magalhäes

Even for the standard skill-biased technological change (SBTC) literature, the generic rise in the skill premium in the face of the relative increase in skilled workers since the 1980s seems a little puzzling. We develop a general equilibrium SBTC growth model that allows the dominance of either the price channel or the market-size channel mechanism through which network spillovers affect the technological-knowledge bias and, thus, the paths of intra-country wage inequality. The proposed mechanisms can accommodate facts not explained by the earlier literature.


2013 ◽  
pp. 97-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Apokin

The author compares several quantitative and qualitative approaches to forecasting to find appropriate methods to incorporate technological change in long-range forecasts of the world economy. A?number of long-run forecasts (with horizons over 10 years) for the world economy and national economies is reviewed to outline advantages and drawbacks for different ways to account for technological change. Various approaches based on their sensitivity to data quality and robustness to model misspecifications are compared and recommendations are offered on the choice of appropriate technique in long-run forecasts of the world economy in the presence of technological change.


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