BASIC INCOME OPORTUNITIES IN LATIN AMERICA IN THE FACE OF THE COVID19 PANDEMIC: SOCIAL VULNERABILIRY AND STRUCTURAL BLOCKS

Faced with the COVID19 pandemic, the Latin American governments have taken measures that have and will have a profound economic and social impact. While many of this measures might mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic and of the epidemiological strategies to contain its spread they might end up enhancing the vulnerabilities of the social structure and the deficits of the social protection systems. In this scenario, the debate on proposals such as citizen income or basic income is growing. Although its implementation would be desirable, there are not many possibilities in the short term because it depends on changes in the perception of elites, investment to overcome structural deficits in the provision of public goods and the transformation of conceptions that supports the current policies of targeted and conditional cash transfers.

The fiscal cost of the provision of basic public services, subsidies for expenditure on food and basic citizen income per household in costa rica, guatemala and el salvador during the covid-19 pandemic: An expenditure analysis

The objective of this article is to estimate the fiscal costs, using income and expenditure surveys, of the provision of basic public services (electricity, water, telephone and internet) for the 40% of the population with the lowest incomes, the provision of a subsidy of 50% of actual food expenditure for the 40% of the population with the lowest incomes and the provision of a basic income per household equivalent to the value of the poverty line for households under the poverty line in Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador during the COVID-19 pandemic. These fiscal options are a fundamental component of any public health strategy against the COVID-19 considering they give economic viability to the population during the isolation and mobility restrictions period and financial support during the economic and social emergency. The results show that the fiscal costs of the provision of basic public services to 40% of the population with the lowest incomes or other fiscal measures considering less ambitious targets are heterogeneous between these Central American countries because of previous conditions and public policies but are reasonable and possible to cover under the actual circumstances. © 2020, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A.C.. All rights reserved.