Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/214533 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
CREMA Working Paper No. 2013-08
Publisher: 
Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA), Zürich
Abstract: 
In Switzerland, a constitutional initiative has been launched to introduce an unconditional basic income. It should amount to 2'500 CHF per month for adults and 625 CHF for children. Total expenditure would be 200 Billion CHF, of which 50 Billion CHF are already covered by today's social security benefits. The proposed financial concept is unrealistic. The same holds, however, for financing this system by the value added tax or the income tax. This once again shows that an unconditional basic income is either too low to secure - without additional income - a decent existence or it cannot be financed if it is high enough to fulfil this objective. The same holds for the related concept of the negative income tax. Moreover, it is also very hard to justify a truly unconditional basic income for ethical reasons.
Subjects: 
Unconditional Basic Income
Negative Income Tax
JEL: 
I38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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