Basic Income Guarantee: the gender impact within households

The potential of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) to contribute to gender equality is a contested issue amongst feminist scholars. This article focuses on the nature of BIG as an individually- based payment to explore its potential for reducing gender equality, specifically intra-household inequalities in material or financial welfare; economic autonomy; psychological well-being; and time allocation, especially leisure time and time spent in household and care work. We employ a gender analysis of existing BIG pilots/schemes as well as close substitutes (e.g., universal child benefits) to assess some of the key claims about the effects of a basic income (BI) on gendered inequality. We also present findings from empirical work on intra-household allocation and decision-making which underscore the role of independent income. The article finds some support for BIG as a feminist proposal with respect to mitigating intra-household inequality, but concludes that further empirical research is needed to argue persuasively for BIG as an instrument for furthering gender equality

Guest Editors' Introduction II: reflections on scholarship and activism in Canada and Ireland

No abstract

Scotland's progressive rhetoric: devolution and carer's allowance

The Scotland Act 2016 devolved powers over eleven social security benefits (including Carer’s Allowance) providing Scotland with some, albeit limited, opportunity to differentiate itself in terms of welfare policy progressivity. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 set out the strategy for supporting those who limit their employment or educational enrolment due to the responsibility of caring for an adult or child with a health condition. Using a microsimulation of Scottish data from the Family Resource Survey, this article explores the potential impact, on income and poverty rates of carer households, of raising the level of CA by various amounts and by changing the eligibility criteria. It concludes that, while the Scottish Government’s ambitions are too modest to fully support their progressive rhetoric, or to change the overall income inequality landscape, the reforms in targeted policy do make a substantial difference to the lived experience to carers in poverty and, by extension, to the receipt of that care

Equilibrium in Scoring Auctions

This paper studies multi-attribute auctions in which a buyer seeks to procure a complex good and evaluate offers using a quasi-linear scoring rule. Suppliers have private information about their costs, which is summarized by a multi-dimensional type. The scoring rule reduces the multidimensional bids submitted by each supplier to a single dimension, the score, which is used for deciding on the allocation and the resulting contractual obligation. We exploit this idea and obtain two kinds of results. First, we characterize the set of equilibria in quasi-linear scoring auctions with multi-dimensional types. In particular, we show that there exists a mapping between the class of equilibria in these scoring auctions and those in standard single object IPV auctions. Second, we prove a new expected utility equivalence theorem for quasi-linear scoring auctions.Auctions, Procurement

Who earns, who shares and who decides: Does it matter for individual deprivation in couples? ESRI Research Bulletin 2016/1/3

Research on poverty usually assumes that household income is shared equally among household members so that they all benefit from the same living standard. This assumption has been criticised, however, by some who argue that differences in power within the household – typically linked to who receives the income or who makes the decisions – may mean that some members of households enjoy better access to goods and services than others. One possibility is that since women are less likely to have earned income, their bargaining power will be decreased and they will have higher levels of deprivation than their male partners. This study examined couple families in Ireland to test whether this was the case

How and when do markets tip? Lessons from the Battle of the Bund

In a famous episode of financial history which lasted over eight years, the market for the future on the Bund moved entirely from LIFFE, a London-based derivatives exchange, to DTB, a Frankfurt-based exchange. This paper studies the determinants of the observed dynamics, using a novel panel dataset that contains individual trading firms' membership status at each exchange together with other firms characteristics, and pricing, marketing and product portfolio strategies by each exchange. Our data allows us to distinguish between different explanations for the observed phenomenon. Our results indicate that the main driver was a "market coverage" effect: thanks to the combination its electronic market structure and EU-wide access deregulation, DTB increased the relevant size of the market for exchange members and disproportionately attracted those firms who originally did not exist or used to submit their orders through a broker. Differential liquidity and product portfolio strategies by the exchanges played a secondary role. JEL Classification: G21, G28, L13, L43adoption cost, Bund, electronic trading, Exchange competition, network effect, open outcry, tipping

Social security and subsidiarity

In this paper we deal with the design of three social insurance schemes (old age social security, health insurance an child benefits) in a federal setting such as the Belgian one. We argue that these three programs need to be reformed to be more efficient and more equitable. In none of these cases regional decentralization would be the most important element of the reform. Yet, in all three cases, some inefficiencies can be removed by a careful design of the relative competencies of the regions and the federal state. An open discussion over these issues is urgently needed to avoid a stalemate in which the necessary reforms are blocked.