Beyond Job Guarantee: the Employer of Last Resort Scheme as a tool to promote the Environmental Transformation

The current health and economic crisis has revived the debate on fiscal policy as a major tool for stabilization and long-term goals. The massive surge in unemployment, due to the economic disruption of the lockdown measures, has increased the interest on policies that target employment directly instead of trying to achieve it via a general “demand push”. One of the proposals currently under debate is the Job Guarantee. Under such a policy the government should act as an ‘Employer of Last Resort”, by offering a job to everyone that is able and wants to work and cannot find a job in the private sector. The wage paid in these programs should become the minimum wage in the labour market. Over the years, this policy proposal has received a number of criticism, in particular on i) the impact on both the government budget and debt ii) the prevailing full-employment equilibrium wage rate once the program is implemented and iii) the implication on the external balances (current and trade account), especially when this policy is implemented in a small, open economy.

• Main Author: Toshiro, Giuliano (author)
• Other Authors: Ruggeri, Francesco (author)
• Format: article
• Language: spa
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Stock-Flow Consistent Models; Job Guarantee Plan; Structural Change; Energy
• Online Access: https://estudioseconomicos.bce.fin.ec/index.php/RevistaCE/article/view/347