Universal Basic Income and Negative Income Tax: Two Different Ways of Thinking Redistribution

This article examines two redistributive policies: Negative Income Tax and Universal Basic Income. Its aim is to show that, although the two achieve the same distributive outcome through an appropriate tax-benefit system, they are fundamentally different from economic and ethical points of view. The approach integrates positive and normative analysis and explicit attention to ethical issues provides a more complete description of economic aspects. We show that Negative Income Tax scheme is coherent with the libertarian idea of distributive justice, while Basic Income follows egalitarian thought.