Nobel laureate Angus Deaton yesterday lent support to basic income grants as part of government efforts to mitigate wealth and consumption inequality.
“The government should take care of people with low income and should be pushing basic income grants,” the economist told a forum at the Taipei International Convention Center.
Basic income grants, or guaranteed income, are a government-ensured guarantee that no citizen’s income falls below the level necessary to meet their most basic needs.
Photo: CNA
Advocates say the program is an efficient, effective and equitable solution to poverty that not only promotes individual freedom, but also keeps the beneficial aspects of a market economy in place.
Deaton, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, said that risk, even stationary risk, cumulates into inequality when shaped by rapid technical progress, globalization and a rapidly changing world.
“The larger the factor of shocks, the riskier the world becomes, the more potential there is for increases in inequality,” he said.
Deaton was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics last year for his analysis of consumption, poverty and welfare, with the Economic Sciences Prize Committee saying that his work linking individual choices and aggregate outcomes had helped transform the study of microeconomics, macroeconomics and development economics.
Deaton last year said that there are still 700 million poor people in the world and they are “a constant reproach to all of us.”
Wealth inequality is likely to increase at a much faster pace unless there is some offset from an insurance arrangement under a range of personal and social mechanism that ties people together, Deaton has said.
Deaton has said that climate change and inequality are the two greatest challenges facing the world, adding: “I do worry about a world in which the rich get to write the rules.”
Deaton has also taken a keen interest in Taiwan, calling it “the home of saving” because people at all ages save a lot, just as all ages save little in the US.
He said he is not able to account for the phenomenon after examining housing, bequest and small business ownership needs.
Deaton rejected the link between Taiwan’s excessive savings and Confucianism, adding that South Koreans are also influenced by Confucius, but save less.
Intel Corp yesterday said it has placed its first order with ASML Holding NV to purchase the semiconductor industry’s first TWINSCAN EXE: 5200 system, as the US chip giant aims to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in advancing to 2-nanometer process technology. The Dutch semiconductor equipment maker’s TWINSCAN EXE:5200 system is an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) high-volume production system with a high numerical aperture (NA) that can produce 220 wafers per hour, more than the 150 wafers that its previous generation TWINSCAN EXE:5000 system can handle. ASML aims to launch the new system in 2024. ASML president and chief
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest 5G chip supplier, saw its ranking rise by one notch to No. 7 last year among world semiconductor vendors, as it benefited from the rapid 5G smartphone uptake in China after Huawei Technologies Co (華為) was forced to exit the market, Gartner Inc said in a report yesterday. MediaTek’s revenue soared 58.8 percent to US$17.45 billion last year from US$10.99 billion in 2020, outpacing the global semiconductor industry’s growth of 25 percent, according to Gartner’s tally. That gave MediaTek a 3 percent market share. The Hsinchu-based chip company ranked No. 8 in 2020, behind Texas Instruments
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog yesterday fined 23 domestic and foreign shippers a combined 96.2 billion won (US$80.84 million) for price-fixing, including three Taiwanese container shippers — Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) and Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運) — the Central News Agency and Japan’s Nikkei Asia reported. Korea Marine Transport Co and Sinokor Merchant Marine Co instigated the collusion by raising freight rates for routes between South Korea and Southeast Asia, China and Japan, and they were later joined by other foreign and domestic firms, the Korea Fair Trade Commission said, citing the results of an
Citigroup Inc, which has been shedding some of its retail operations as part of a global revamp, is in advanced talks with Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) for a sale of its China consumer business, people familiar with the matter said. Taipei-based Fubon has emerged as the likeliest buyer after outbidding rivals, and the two lenders are negotiating the terms of a potential transaction, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. They are aiming to sign an agreement in the next few weeks and the assets could be valued at about US$1.5 billion, the people said. A
RSS