Basic Income in Austria: A Research Proposal
In the last decade the condition of Austria’s population and that of other EU member states has deteriorated, with increasingly unequal income distribution, a greater number of working poor and high levels of unemployment. Thus, it comes as no surprise that several groups (attac, and various Austrian leftists, liberals and Roman Catholics) are now demanding the introduction of qualitatively new concepts to counteract these tendencies. The most prominent is the idea of an “Unconditional Basic Income”. Transform!at has asked for support for a research project from the Austria’s Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research (FWF) to study in detail the implementation and possible medium-term effects of basic income, concentrating on empirical investigations and a mathematical simulation model (a dynamic agency model). The basic research questions are:
- What is the socio-economic impact of introducing basic income in Austria according to various scenarios?
- What changes can be expected in the Austrian economy through 2020 if basic income were introduced now?
- How should basic income be implemented (especially in respect to modes of financing) to ensure long-term and sustainable social and economic well-being?
- How will the distribution of work (wage and non-wage) change? Which groups are inclined to increase or reduce their overall workload? What kinds of work will be preferred and what are the reasons for preferring these kinds of work? How will gender relations be affected?
- How will the labour market, the occupational structure, change once a guaranteed basic income is introduced at a certain level? How will time accounting beyond the labour market change?
- What changes can be expected in the employer-employee relationship, the wage-labour nexus and in wage compensations once a basic income is introduced?
The FWF’s decision on financing the project is expected by the end of 2007. The full text of the proposal can be downloaded from http://peter.fleissner.org/uploads/texte/basic_income_project_description_Abgabeversion.doc
Contact: office@transform.or.at
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