Basic Income Schemes and the Lessons from Public Economics

Abstract

What I would like to do in this lecture is to take one major policy issue in the field of social security and taxation — the proposal to introduce a basic income scheme — and use it as a basis for reviewing the current state of public economics. The basic income scheme is a quite radical proposal, affecting both social security and personal income taxation. It brings together consideration of tax reform — one of the leading policy topics of the 1980s — and of social security reform — which I suspect will be one of the key issues of the 1990s. It has generated interest in a number of countries. I have seen proposals for — among other countries — Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Eire, France, Italy, Netherlands, the UK, USA and West Germany.

The chapter draws on research carried out as part of the ESRC Programme on Taxation, Incentives and the Distribution of Income at the LSE, and I should like to acknowledge the contribution of my colleagues, although they should not be held responsible for the views expressed. The material covered in the Lecture is discussed at greater length in my Lindahl Lectures (Atkinson, forthcoming).