IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2021-179.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Guaranteed Minimum Income Schemes in Europe: Landscape and Design

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. David Coady
  • Samir Jahan
  • Baoping Shang
  • Riki Matsumoto

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the design of means-tested Guaranteed Minimum Income schemes, which constitute an important component of social protection systems in European countries. It discusses how key design features differ across countries, including how countries balance the primary objective of poverty alleviation against the desire to both manage the work disincentives inherent in such programs and contain fiscal cost. The analysis finds a clear trade-off between both concerns in practice, with many countries combining low generosity with low benefit withdrawal rates (BWRs) thus prioritizing employment incentives over the primary objective of poverty alleviation. Many countries can reduce this trade off by combining higher generosity with higher BWRs. Countries with very high BWRs should consider reducing these, including through allowing income disregards and time dependent (rather than income-dependent) benefit withdrawal. The work disincentives associated with higher BWRs can also be attenuated through strengthening complementary activation policies that incentivize and support participation in the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. David Coady & Samir Jahan & Baoping Shang & Riki Matsumoto, 2021. "Guaranteed Minimum Income Schemes in Europe: Landscape and Design," IMF Working Papers 2021/179, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/179
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=461341
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Richiardi, Matteo, 2022. "A basic income for France: Ideas for a debate," FRIBIS Discussion Paper Series 02-2022, University of Freiburg, Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS).
    2. Marzi,Marta Serena Liliana & Marini,Alessandra & Cherchi,Ludovica & Cenedese,Francesco, 2024. "Minimum Income and Social Inclusion Pathways – A review ofselected European Union programs," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 193099, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/179. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.