Gender Budgeting and Macroeconomic Policy Diane

Transcript:Gender Budgeting and Macroeconomic Policy Diane:
Gender Budgeting and Macroeconomic Policy Diane Elson, Chair Women’s Budget Group Presentation to WBG Training Day, January 30th, 2015 Managing budget deficits/surpluses Government does not directly control deficit/surplus Controls only some aspects of expenditure e.g. social security rates and conditions but not total payments Controls only some aspects of taxation e.g. tax rates but not revenue Expenditure cuts can cut revenue too and make deficit worse Timing and speed of deficit reduction plan should be determined in relation to state of real economy- fast and untimely deficit reduction efforts can make a downturn worse and hamper recovery A balanced budget or a surplus is not necessarily a good thing Capitalist economies are inherently organized around credit and debt Government debt may be preferable to private debt and may more easily be rolled over- depends on specific context Currently UK government has no problem borrowing at low interest rates Recent Developments at UK level Charter for Budget Responsibility passed by House of Commons on 13th Jan 2015 , supported by Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties Appears to commit next government to balance current account of budget by 2017/18 Implies continued and massive cuts in public expenditure Osborne lecture to Royal Economic Society on 15th Jan 2015 set out plans for further new fiscal policy rules for period after 2017/18 requiring government to operate an overall budget surplus thereafter in ‘normal times’ Office for Budget Responsibility would decide when times are not ‘normal’ Surplus in normal times is apparently required to reduce debt levels, as high debt levels leave economy vulnerable to ‘shocks’ No recognition that likelihood of shocks depends on financial regulation and can be reduced by better regulation Gender Dimensions of Budget Deficit/ Surplus Gender differentiated impacts likely because: Social security payments make up a greater share of women’s incomes than men’s, as women earn less in the labour market Women pay less direct tax than men, as women earn less in labour market Women make greater use of public services than men, linked to greater care responsibilities and greater use of care services Higher proportion of women’s employment is in public sector than men’s House of Commons Library research following AFS 2014 found that changes to direct taxes and social security introduced by Coalition Government since 2010 had raised £26 bn, of which £22 bn was taken from women, 85% of the total To redress this in future: