The Job Guarantee: Lessons from Argentina’s Jefes Plan and Its Reform

According to current macroeconomic models, there is a need to maintain a natural rate of unemployment to contain inflation. Put simply, unemployment is considered an (inevitable) cost of price stability. Even some Post Keynesian economists believe the so-called balance-of-payments (BOP) constraint imposes a trade-off between inflation and unemployment in developing countries. On the contrary, what has come to be known as Modern Money Theory (MMT), from its inception, argued that full employment and price stability (as defined) can be achieved simultaneously, through a labor buffer stock or Job Guarantee (JG). In addition to the theoretical literature on the JG, there have been a number of “real world” experiences. In particular, Argentina´s Jefes y Jefas de Hogares Desocupados program (“Jefes”) has been considered, in the MMT literature, as a (limited) JG case study. While the Jefes and its reform have been addressed in the past, this article considers the rationale for such reform within the broader framework of an economic policy based on two fundamental pillars of social inclusion: the expansion of social security and aggregate demand management that would drive economic growth and, thus, job creation.

While both job creation and expansion of social security allowed for a steep decline in poverty and extreme poverty rates during the 2003–15 period, the economy did not reach full employment; in fact, jobs were lost for the less skilled. Not only did aggregate demand management not secure full employment, but it proved to be inherently inflationary. Indexation of public wages, social security payments and virtually every price paid by the government compounded the problem and institutionalized inflation.

After the fall of the currency board in 2002, Argentina defaulted on its foreign currency public debt and implemented the Jefes, which could have been expanded to achieve full employment and an internally stable currency. Unfortunately, the Jefes was gradually faded out, along with the potential benefits of transforming it into a full-fledged JG. It is imperative to retake the road once taken. Labor markets and—more generally—the world economy are going through an unprecedented transformation driven by technological, environmental and demographic changes. In this context, MMT offers practical insights for achieving politically determined goals—for example, sustainable development goals. Specifically, the JG can now deliver employment for all.