Poverty

==== Income grants ====
{{Main|Guaranteed minimum income|Social security|Welfare}}

[[File:Afghan girl begging.jpg|thumb|Afghan girl begging in [[Kabul]]]]
A [[guaranteed minimum income]] ensures that every citizen will be able to purchase a desired level of basic needs. One method is through a [[basic income]] (or [[negative income tax]]), which is a system of [[social security]], that periodically provides each citizen, rich or poor, with a sum of money that is sufficient to live on.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Wright |first1=Erik Olin |date=14 February 2017 |title=Can the universal basic income solve global inequalities? |url=https://en.unesco.org/inclusivepolicylab/news/can-universal-basic-income-solve-global-inequalities |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=en.unesco.org}}</ref> Studies of large cash-transfer programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi show that the programs can be effective in increasing consumption, schooling, and nutrition, whether they are tied to such conditions or not.<ref>{{cite journal
|title= Special Section on Social Cash Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa
|journal= Journal of Development Effectiveness
|year= 2012
|url= http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjde20/4/1
|access-date= 23 January 2013
|volume= 4
|issue= 1
|pages= 1–187
|doi= 10.1080/19439342.2012.659024
|last1= Davis
|first1= Benjamin
|last2= Gaarder
|first2= Marie
|last3= Handa
|first3= Sudhanshu
|last4= Yablonski
|first4= Jenn
|s2cid= 129406705
|archive-date= 8 August 2020
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200808043539/https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjde20/4/1
|url-status= live
}}</ref><ref name=Spiegel>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,642310,00.html|title=A new approach to aid: How a basic income program saved a Namibian village|work=Der Spiegel|access-date=28 May 2011|date=10 August 2009|last1=Krahe|first1=Dialika|archive-date=16 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516110247/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,642310,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Namibians line up">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415814.stm|title=Namibians line up for free cash|work=BBC News|access-date=28 May 2011|date=23 May 2008|archive-date=20 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620055405/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7415814.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Wage subsidy|Employment subsidies]] are conditional subsidies that go to those already employed and this has shown to have little effect on those at the lowest income levels.<ref name="Scholz" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hoynes |first1=Hilary |last2=Patel |first2=Ankur |date=July 2015 |title=Effective Policy for Reducing Inequality? The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Distribution of Income |journal=Journal of Human Resources |volume=53 |issue=4 |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/2021-07/Hoynes-Patel-0616.pdf |doi=10.3386/w21340 |location=Cambridge, MA|s2cid=153263015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Orszag |first1=J. Michael |last2=Snower |first2=Dennis J. |date=2003-10-01 |title=Designing employment subsidies |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537103000356 |journal=Labour Economics |language=en |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=557–572 |doi=10.1016/S0927-5371(03)00035-6 |issn=0927-5371}}</ref> Proponents argue that a basic income is more economically efficient than a [[minimum wage]] and [[unemployment benefit]]s, as the minimum wage effectively imposes a high marginal tax on employers, causing [[deadweight loss|losses in efficiency]]. In 1968, [[Paul Samuelson]], [[John Kenneth Galbraith]] and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US Congress to introduce a system of income guarantees.<ref>''Economists' Statement on Guaranteed Annual Income'', 1/15/1968 – April 18, 1969 folder, General Correspondence Series, Papers of John Kenneth Galbraith, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Cited in: Jyotsna Sreenivasan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yk5NI69ZO9sC "Poverty and the Government in America: A Historical Encyclopedia."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629172441/https://books.google.com/books?id=yk5NI69ZO9sC |date=29 June 2016 }} (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009), p. 269</ref> Winners of the [[Nobel Prize in Economics]], with often diverse political convictions, who support a basic income include [[Herbert A. Simon]],<ref name=Standing/> [[Friedrich Hayek]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Hayek |first=Friedrich |author-link=Friedrich Hayek |title= Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy |volume=2 |year=1973 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7100-8403-3 |page=87 }}</ref> [[Robert Solow]],<ref name=Standing/> [[Milton Friedman]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Milton |author-link=Milton Friedman |first2=Rose |last2=Friedman |title=Free to Choose: A Personal Statement |year=1990 |publisher=Harcourt |isbn=978-0-15-633460-0 |pages=120–123 }}</ref> [[Jan Tinbergen]],<ref name=Standing/> [[James Tobin]]<ref name="Steensland ">{{cite book|last=Steensland |first=Brian |title=The failed welfare revolution |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2007 |pages=70–78 |isbn= 978-0-691-12714-9}}</ref><ref>''"Is a Negative Income Tax Practical?"'', James Tobin, Joseph A. Pechman, and Peter M. Mieszkowski, Yale Law Journal 77 (1967): 1–27.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3649 |title=Interview with James Tobin – The Region – Publications & Papers &#124; The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |first=David |last=Fettig |work=minneapolisfed.org |year=2011 |quote=I would pursue my recommendations of years ago for a negative income tax. |access-date=25 October 2011 |archive-date=15 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015124538/http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3649 |url-status=live }}</ref>
and [[James Meade]].<ref name=Standing >{{cite book|year=2005 |publisher=Anthem Press |location=London |isbn=978-1-84331-174-4 |title=Promoting Income Security as a Right: Europe and North America |chapter=1. About Time: Basic Income Security As A Right |page=18 |first=Guy |last=Standing |edition=2nd |editor-first=Guy |editor-last=Standing |quote=Among those who have become convinced of the virtues of the basic income approach are several Nobel Prize-winning economists of surprisingly diverse political convictions: Milton Friedman, Herbert Simon, Robert Solow, Jan Tinbergen and James Tobin (besides, of course, James Meade who was an advocate from his younger days).}}</ref>

Income grants are argued to be vastly more efficient in extending basic needs to the poor than [[subsidies|subsidizing]] supplies whose effectiveness in poverty alleviation is diluted by the non-poor who enjoy the same subsidized prices.<ref name=Jha>
{{cite journal
 |year        = 2010
 |first1     = Shikha
 |last1     = Jha
 |first2     = Bharat
 |last2     = Ramaswami
 |title       = How Can Food Subsidies Work Better? Answers from India and the Philippines
 |journal = Erd Working Paper
 |url         = http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2010/economics-wp221.pdf
 |publisher   = Asian Development Bank
 |location    = Manila
 |issn        = 1655-5252
 |access-date  = 23 January 2013
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20150506130749/http://adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2010/economics-wp221.pdf
 |archive-date = 6 May 2015
|df          = dmy-all
}}</ref> With cars and other appliances, the wealthiest 20% of Egypt uses about 93% of the country's fuel subsidies.<ref name=fossilfuel/> In some countries, fuel subsidies are a larger part of the budget than health and education.<ref name=fossilfuel>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121210104516139607.html|title=How to end fossil fuel subsidies without hurting the poor|publisher=Aljazeera|access-date=23 January 2013|date=11 December 2012|archive-date=14 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214104328/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121210104516139607.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/world/asia/india-takes-aim-at-poverty-with-cash-transfer-program.html?_r=0 |title= India Aims to Keep Money for Poor Out of Others' Pockets |work= The New York Times |access-date= 23 January 2013 |date= 5 January 2013 |archive-date= 15 May 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130515192059/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/world/asia/india-takes-aim-at-poverty-with-cash-transfer-program.html?_r=0 |url-status= live }}</ref> A 2008 study concluded that the money spent on in-kind transfers in India in a year could lift all India's poor out of poverty for that year if transferred directly.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kapur |first=Devesh |author2=Mukhopadhyay, Subramanian |title=More for the Poor and Less for and by the State: The Case for Direct Cash Transfers |date=12 April 2008 |url=http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/papers/subramanian0408b.pdf |access-date=23 January 2013 |archive-date=14 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514165229/http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/papers/subramanian0408b.pdf }}</ref> The primary obstacle argued against direct cash transfers is the impractically for poor countries of such large and direct transfers. In practice, payments determined by complex iris scanning are used by war-torn [[Democratic Republic of Congo]] and Afghanistan,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cgdev.org/blog/biometrics-identity-and-development|title=Biometrics, Identity and Development|publisher=Center for Global Development|date=14 October 2010|access-date=6 April 2013|archive-date=26 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926053529/http://www.cgdev.org/blog/biometrics-identity-and-development|url-status=live}}</ref> while India is phasing out its fuel subsidies in favor of direct transfers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805299.html|title=India announces changes in subsidies, will hand out cash to its poor|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=28 February 2011|access-date=6 April 2013|archive-date=10 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010022657/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805299.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, in aid models, the [[famine relief]] model increasingly used by aid groups calls for giving cash or cash vouchers to the hungry to pay local farmers instead of buying food from donor countries, often required by law, as it wastes money on transport costs.<ref name=csmonitor>{{cite journal|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0604/p01s02-woaf.html|title=UN aid debate: give cash not food?|journal=Christian Science Monitor|date=4 June 2008|access-date=21 June 2011|archive-date=3 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703113649/http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0604/p01s02-woaf.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=wfp>{{cite web|url=http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2899 |title=Cash roll-out to help hunger hot spots |publisher=[[World Food Program]] |date=8 December 2008 |access-date=21 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212124012/http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2899 |archive-date=12 February 2009 }}</ref>