Employer Of Last Resort As A Public Employment Program To Reduce Unemployment

Yıl 2019, , 2539 - 2558, 16.07.2019

Dicle Özdemir

https://doi.org/10.33206/mjss.466300

Cited By: 1

Öz

This paper objective is to assess Employer of Last Resort (ELR) program, a heterodox policy recommendation by Hyman Minsky on how full employment could be reached under price stability by governments, and discuss basic theoretical frameworks in order to facilitate capturing advantages and disadvantages of this approach. The program is a public-employment policy funded by government that aims to achieve zero unemployment by recruiting all (unemployed) workers who are willing and able to work but cannot find a job and ready to work in public sector projects. For this reason, the article begins with a brief analysis of conceptual perspective to analyze the implications of ELR, followed by an analysis on how this program operates as a buffer-stock mechanism operating on a fixed price/floating quantity rule. This kind of policy is crucial especially for developing countries as Turkey where the majority of labor is in the informal sector with no social protection and there is no doubt that working under an ELR program would contribute to social assistance and security and to making labor markets work more effectively for the poor.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Unemployment, Employment, Post Keynesian, Employer of Last Resort

İşsizliğin Azaltılmasında Kamusal Bir İstihdam Modeli Olarak Nihai İşveren Programı

Öz

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Hyman Minsky'nin hükümetler tarafından fiyat istikrarı
altında tam istihdama nasıl ulaşılabileceğine dair bir heterodoks politika
önerisi olan devletin nihai işveren olma politikasını değerlendirmek ve bu
yaklaşımın avantajlarını ve dezavantajlarını kavrayabilmek için temel teorik
çerçevede tartışmaktır. Program, hükümet tarafından finanse edilen ve iş
arayan, ancak iş bulamayan ve kamu sektörü projelerinde çalışmaya hazır olan
tüm işsizleri ise alarak sıfır işsizlik elde etmeyi amaçlayan bir kamu istihdam
politikasıdır. Bu nedenle, bu çalışma, programın etkilerini analiz etmek için
kavramsal bakış açısının kısa bir analizi ile başlamaktadır ve bunu daha sonra
bu programın sabit fiyat kuralı üzerinde çalışan bir tampon stok mekanizması
olarak nasıl çalıştığı üzerine odaklanan bir analiz izleyecektir. Bu tür bir
politika özellikle Türkiye gibi işgücünün çoğunluğunun gayri resmi sektörlerde
sosyal güvence olmaksızın çalışmak zorunda kaldığı ülkeler için kritik öneme
sahiptir zira etkin bir nihai işveren programı altında çalışmanın sosyal yardım
ve güvenliğe katkı sağlayacağından ve yoksul kesim açısından işgücü
piyasalarının etkinliğini arttıracağından şüphe yoktur.

Anahtar Kelimeler

İşsizlik, İstihdam, Post Keynesyen, Nihai İşveren

Kaynakça

• Bhatia, R, Chinoy, SL, Kaushish, B, Puri, J, Chahar, VS Waddington, H. (2016). Examining the evidence on the effectiveness of India’s rural employment guarantee act, 3ie Working Paper 27. New Delhi: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
• Chakraborty, P. (2007). Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India: Special Dimensions and Fiscal Implications. Levy Institute of Bard College Working Paper #505.
• CofFEE (2010). Center of Full Employment and Equity. http://e1.newcastle.edu.au/coffee/job_guarantee/JobGuarantee.cfm
• CofFEE. (2018). The Centre of Full Employment and Equity, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia. http://e1.newcastle.edu.au/coffee/pubs/briefs/dogs/dogs_and_bones.cfm
• Forstater, M. (1999). Functional Finance and Full Employment: Lessons from Lerner for Today. Journal of Economic Issues 32(2): 475–482.
• Forstater, M. (2002). Full Employment Policies Must Consider Effective Demand and Structural and Technological Change: A Prime Point of Pasinetti’s Political Economy. In A Post Keynesian Perspective on 21st Century Economic Problems edited by Paul Davidson. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
• Friedman, M. (1968). The Role of Monetary Policy. American Economic Review, 58(1): 1-17.
• Ghuman, R. S., Dua, K. (2008). NREGA and Rural Employment in Punjab: An Evaluative Study of Hoshiarpur District. Presentation at Employment Opportunities and Public Employment Policy in Globalizing India.
• Gordon, W. (1997). Job Assurance – the Job Guarantee Revisited. Journal of Economic Issues. v. 31, 826-34.
• Hargreaves Heap, S. (1980). Choosing the Wrong Natural Rate: Accelerating Inflation or Decelerating Employment and Growth? Economic Journal 90 (359), 611–620
• Harvey, P. (1989). Securing the Right to Employment: Social Welfare Policy and the Unemployed in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Kaboub, F. (2007a). Employment Guarantee Programs: A Survey of Theories and Policy Experiences”, The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Working Paper no: 498, pp.1-23.
• Kaboub, F. (2007b). Institutional Adjustment Planning for Full Employment. Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. XLI, No. 2, June 2007, pp. 495-502.
• Kaboub, F. (2008). Price vs. Quantity Adjustment. In William A. Darity, Jr. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol. 6, Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference, USA.
• Kadmos, G., O’Hara, P. (2000). The Taxes-Drive-Money and Employer of Last Resort Approach to Government Policy. Journal of Economic and Social Policy: Vol. 5, No. 1: 1-23.
• Keynes, John M., 1883-1946. (1936). The general theory of employment, interest and money. London :Macmillan
• Kregel, J. A. (1991). The Theory of Economic Breakdown, Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 1177-1179, December.
• Kregel, J. (1999). Price Stability and Full Employment as Complements in a New Europe: A Market-Based Price Stabilization Policy for the New ECB. In Full Empoyment and Price Stability in a Global Economy, P. Davidson and J.Kregel, Edward Elgar.
• Lerner, A. (1943). Financial Finance and the Federal Debt. Social Research, 10, February., 38-57.
• Lerner, A. (1947). Money as a Creature of the State. American Economic Review. 37, 312-317.
• Majewski, R. (2004). Simulating an Employer of Last Resort Program. In Growth, Distribution, and Effective Demand: Alternatives to Economic Orthodoxy, Essays in Honor of Edward J. Nell, edited by George Argyrous, Mathew Forstater, and Gary Mongiovi. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 2004
• Minsky, H. P. (1965). The Role of Employment Policy. In M. S. Gordon, ed., Poverty in America. San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company.
• Minsky, H. (1986). Stabilizing and Unstable Economy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Mitchell, W.F. (1998). The buffer stock employment model: full employment without a NAIRU. Journal of Economic Issues, 32(2), 547–55.
• Nell, E. J. (1988). Prosperity and Public Spending: Transformational Growth and the Role of Government. Boston, MA: Unwin Hymann
• Phelps, E. S. (1967). Phillips Curves, Expectations of Inflation and Optimal Unemployment over Time. Economica, 34(135): 254-81.
• Rissman, E.R. (1986).What is the natural rate of unemployment? Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Sep, 3-17
• Sawyer, M. (2003). Employer of last resort: could it deliver full employment and price stability? Journal of Economic Issues, 39, 881–907.
• Sawyer, M. (2005). Employer of Last Resort: A Response to My Critics. Journal of Economic Issues, 39 (1): 256–64.
• Palley, T. I. (2001). Government as Employer of Last Resort: Can It Work? Industrial Relations Research Association.53rd Annual Proceedings, 269-274.
• Papadimitriou, D. B. (2008). Promoting Equality Through an Employment of Last Resort Policy, Working Paper n. 545, The Jerome Levy Economics Institute.
• Ravallion, M., Galasso, E. (2004). Social Protection in a Crisis: Argentina's Plan Jefes Y Jefas (November 5). World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 18, no:3, 367-399.
• Rissman, E. (1986). What is the Natural Rate of Unemployment? Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, No. September/October.
• Seccareccia, M. (2004). What Type of Full Employment? A Critical Evaluation of Government as the Employer of Last Resort’ Policy Proposal. Investigación Económica, Vol. 63, No. 247: 15-43.
• Wray, R. L. (1998). Understanding Modern Money. Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1668.
• Wray, R. L. (2007). The Employer of Last Resort Programme: Could It Work for Developing Countries? Economic and Labour Market Papers, International Labour Office, Geneva.
• Tcherneva, P. R., Wray, L. R. (2005). Is Jefes De Hogar an Employer of Last Resort Program? An Assessment of Argentina's Ability to Deliver the Promise of Full Employment and Price Stability (August 1, 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1009618 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1009618
• Tcherneva, P. R. (2008). Keynes's Approach to Full Employment: Aggregate or Targeted Demand? (August 8). Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 542. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1212982 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1212982
• Tcherneva, P. R. (2012). Beyond Full Employment: The Employer of Last Resort as an Institution for Change (September 27, 2012). Levy Economics Institute of Bard College Working Paper No. 732. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2153220 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2153220
• UNCTAD (2010). Trade and Development Report. Employment, Globalization and Development. Technical report. United Nations Conference on Trade And Development, Geneva.