The Basic Income Road to Reforming Iran's Price Subsidies
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Hamid Tabatabai
Iran has become the first country in the world to provide a de facto basic income to all its citizens. This article reviews the development of the main component of Irans economic reform plan the replacement of fuel and food subsidies with direct cash transfers to the population and shows how a system of universal, regular and unconditional cash transfers emerged almost by default as a by-product of an attempt to transform an inefficient and unfair system of price subsidies. The main features of the cash subsidy system are compared with those of a basic income; then some lessons from this experience are drawn that may enhance the prospects of basic income as a realistic proposition.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Content
- List of Contributors
- Research Article
- The Basic Income Road to Reforming Iran's Price Subsidies
- Overcoming Dividend Skepticism: Why the World's Sovereign Wealth Funds Are Not Paying Basic Income Dividends
- Pathways to a Universal Basic Pension in Greece
- Basic Income From the Bottom Up? Allocating Jobs and Incomes With the Job Sharing Doodle
- Research Note
- The Case for a Global Pension and Youth Grant
- Book Review
- Review of Peter Baldwin, The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe Are Alike
- Review of Joseph Hanlon, David Hulme and Armando Barrientos, Just Give Money to the Poor: The Development Revolution From the Global South
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Content
- List of Contributors
- Research Article
- The Basic Income Road to Reforming Iran's Price Subsidies
- Overcoming Dividend Skepticism: Why the World's Sovereign Wealth Funds Are Not Paying Basic Income Dividends
- Pathways to a Universal Basic Pension in Greece
- Basic Income From the Bottom Up? Allocating Jobs and Incomes With the Job Sharing Doodle
- Research Note
- The Case for a Global Pension and Youth Grant
- Book Review
- Review of Peter Baldwin, The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe Are Alike
- Review of Joseph Hanlon, David Hulme and Armando Barrientos, Just Give Money to the Poor: The Development Revolution From the Global South