Fighting Poverty: Assessing the Effect of Guaranteed Minimum Income Proposals in Québec

Nicholas-James Clavet (), Jean-Yves Duclos and Guy Lacroix
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Nicholas-James Clavet: Université Laval

No 7283, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of a recent recommendation made by Quebec's Comité consultatif de lutte contre la pauvreté et l'exclusion sociale to guarantee every individual an income equal to 80% of Statistics Canada's Market Basket Measure (MBM). Workers with earnings at least equivalent to 16 weekly hours at the minimum wage would be entitled to 100% of the MBM. We also investigate the impact of three alternative proposals: 1) a change in the above the hours cut-off from 16 to 30 hours; 2) a guaranteed income equal to 100% of the MBM, irrespective of earnings; 3) a 3$/hour conditional wage subsidy. To do this, we first estimate a structural labor supply model using the existing tax code and predict the labor supply of a representative sample of individuals based upon the parameter estimates of the model. Simulations show that the original recommendation would have strong negative impacts on participation rates of low-earners and that its cost would exceed $ 2 billion. Increasing the hours cut-off is predicted to have little impact beyond those of the original recommendation. Providing a guaranteed income equivalent to 100% of the MBM, on the other hand, would have a large impact. We find that contrary to what is usually assumed, guaranteed income schemes may increase the incidence of low-income rather than decrease it.

Keywords: public finance; labor market effects; poverty alleviation; ex ante evaluation; Guaranteed Minimum Income; financial cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 D31 D63 H31 I30 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2013-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published - published in: Canadian Public Policy, 2013, 39 (4), 491-516

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Related works:
Journal Article: Fighting Poverty: Assessing the Effect of Guaranteed Minimum Income Proposals in Quebec (2013)
Working Paper: Fighting Poverty: Assessing the Effect of a Guaranteed Minimum Income Proposal in Québec (2012)
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