Is a job guarantee a viable alternative to traditional welfare? Pavline Tcherneva reviews the Argentine ‘plan Jefes’ (based on fieldwork). Her article shows, in my opinion, that:
1) People prefer (low wage) work to welfare
2) People enrolled in a ‘job guarantee plan’ are perfectly able to design their own productive community and society oriented activities and act as entrepreneurs they do not really seem to need guidance from the government. Which means that the main criticism of such programs (useless work) falls apart.
3) Not everybody likes the social changes which are engendered by such activities
4) The ‘human capital’ embedded in the labour force as well as the social capital of communities seem to increase
Real-World Economics Review Blog
A job guarantee as an alternative to welfare: the Argentine experience
Merijn Knibbe
A job guarantee as an alternative to welfare: the Argentine experience
Merijn Knibbe
