A Micro-Macro-Economic Modelling Approach to Major Welfare System Reforms : The Case of a Universal Basic Income for Scotland

This paper develops and applies a micro-macroeconomic modelling approach to the introduction of a universal basic income in Scotland. With a growing interest in the value of large-scale welfare reforms in the light of persistent inequalities and following COVID0-19, we demonstrate the value of a comprehensive analysis of both the (micro) impact upon the distribution of household incomes and wider (macro) impacts upon national income, unemployment and government spending. By combining microsimulation with CGE modelling we argue that our findings demonstrate the importance of any major social welfare reform being the subject of a micro-macro modelling approach