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The Macroeconomic Requirements for Prosperity
Author(s) -
Parkin Michael
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8462.1993.tb00768.x
Subject(s) - prosperity , economics , incentive , price of stability , government (linguistics) , parliament , public economics , economic policy , macroeconomics , monetary policy , market economy , economic growth , law , political science , linguistics , philosophy , politics
Abstract This article presents a macroeconomic manifesto for prosperity. The main macroeconomic obstacles to prosperity are rent‐seeking and policy variability and uncertainty. The main proposals for overcoming these obstacles are the creation of three new independent and publicly accountable economic policy institutions: an Independent Monetary Authority, a National Externalities Board, and an Economic Policy Audit Authority. Working with parliament, these institutions would provide an incentive system of checks and balances in which the principles of free trade, price stability, and policy stability would moderate rent‐seeking and provide an environment in which markets could function to deliver a high level of prosperity. A related proposal is the replacement of all existing taxes with just two taxes: a flat rate Consumption Tax to cover government purchases; and a National Dividend Tax to pay for a fixed benefit to all, the rate of which would be determined by a novel method of direct democracy.