No Eurozone without Euro-dividend

The four characteristics that make the difference between the euro zone and the dollar zone and a concrete proposal to save the euro.

Abstract

The vulnerability of the European currency union is ultimately rooted in the extreme weakness of two major buffering mechanisms that have proved crucial to the sustainability of the currency union formed by the United States: inter-state mobility and inter-state solidarity. As little hope can reasonably be staked in increased mobility between member states of the European Union, it is of crucial importance to explore the way in which a far higher level of solidarity could be institutionalized between member states. After having considered and rejected a number of options, the paper ends up focusing on a universal euro-dividend paid to every resident of the European Union (or of the Eurozone) and funded exclusively or mainly by a Value Added Tax. Taking for illustrative purposes a monthly euro-dividend of 200 euros funded by a 20% EUwide VAT, it explores some of the key consequences of such a set up and the conditions of its political feasibility.

Read all: No Eurozone without Eurodividend (2012)  https://euroincome.eu/ubi/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/no-eurozone-without-eurodividend.pdf

About Philippe van Parijs

Philippe van Parijs is Professor at the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences of the University of Louvain (UCL), where he has directed the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics since its creation in 1991.