Fighting Unemployment the Soviet Way: Belarus’ Law against Social Parasites

Natallia Gray and J. David Cameron

Eastern European Economics, 2019, vol. 57, issue 6, 503-523

Abstract: On April 2, 2015, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko issued a decree “On Preventing Social Dependency,” taxing able-bodied citizens who were employed less than 183 days in an employment year the equivalent of $184. We provide a historical analysis of the origin and use of this law in the Soviet Union and examine the social and economic conditions that led to the resuscitation of the old law. We analyze the effectiveness of the tax in terms of the officially stated goals with regards to increases in the tax revenue and employment of the able-bodied working-age population. We also assess some of the unintended consequences that resulted from the imposition of the tax, for example the effect of the tax on the decision to have children.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1080/00128775.2019.1651653

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