Full employment in a low-growth or steady-state economy: A consideration of the issues
Full employment in a low-growth or steady-state economy: A consideration of the issues
| dc.contributor.author | Lawn, Philip Andrew | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-07-01T22:43:01Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2014-07-01T22:43:01Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2002 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Because of ecological limits to growth, a steady-state economy is a long-run necessity requiring minimal rates of production and consumption. While the transition to a steady-state economy would more than likely result in lower levels of real GDP, sustainable economic welfare can still be increased if the constant but evolving stock of physical goods is qualitatively improved over time. The problem with a decline in real GDP is that, under current institutional arrangements, a growth rate of around two to three percent is required to prevent an escalating unemployment rate. This raises the question of how to achieve full employment in a low-growth or steady-state economy? First and foremost, there is a need to sever the GDP-employment link. Second, a judicious combination of supply-side and demand-side policies is required. Central to this policy approach would be the use of ecological tax reform – a revenue-neutral tax package involving a reduction in taxes on such ‘goods’ as labour, income, wages, and profits and an increase in taxes and charges on such ‘bads’ as resource depletion and pollution. To absorb any remaining unemployed workers, a Job Guarantee currently being promoted by some economists could be used in con¬junction with an ecological tax reform package although, in view of the constraints a steady-state economy imposes on demand-side solutions, it may be preferable for governments to remunerate household and volunteer work to encourage some workers to exit the labour force. | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Lawn, P.A., 2002. Full employment in a low-growth or steady-state economy: A consideration of the issues. Australian Bulletin of Labour, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 20-38 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0311-6336 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2328/27735 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | National Institute of Labour Studies | en |
| dc.title | Full employment in a low-growth or steady-state economy: A consideration of the issues | en |
| dc.type | Article | en |
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