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The Case for a Job Guarantee Paperback – July 7, 2020
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In this book, leading expert Pavlina R. Tcherneva challenges us to imagine a world where the phantom of unemployment is banished and anyone who seeks decent, living-wage work can find it - guaranteed. This is the aim of the Job Guarantee proposal: to provide a voluntary employment opportunity in public service to anyone who needs it. Tcherneva enumerates the many advantages of the Job Guarantee over the status quo and proposes a blueprint for its implementation within the wider context of the need for a Green New Deal.
This compact primer is the ultimate guide to the benefits of one of the most transformative public policies being discussed today. It is essential reading for all citizens and activists who are passionate about social justice and building a fairer economy.
Review
"The Job Guarantee is the next big, common-sense idea for economic reform. Over years of dedicated work, Pavlina Tcherneva has developed and advanced the plan, and today it stands poised to complement the Green New Deal and Medicare for All as a fundamental pillar of the progressive agenda. Read about it here... and go out to help make it happen."
―James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin
"More than any other piece of public policy, the Job Guarantee can help us build a more equitable economy and just society. Pavlina Tcherneva has written the perfect primer for anyone interested in understanding why and how the Job Guarantee can do so much good."
―Ady Barkan, Activist and organizer and author of Eyes to the Wind
"Pavlina Tcherneva offers an eloquent and convincing argument for a public sector job guarantee as an economic shock absorber. Particularly valuable is her demonstration of how such a program can revitalise local communities. Beyond this, her book is an indispensable primer for advocates of a Green New Deal."
―Robert Skidelsky
"Tcherneva lays out the case for how we can raise the roof by lifting the floor, as we transition away from a failed and cruel economy based on an assumed percentage of unemployment. She demonstrates how a jobs guarantee can help address some of our biggest challenges, including bridging the gap to a Green New Deal and the critical conversion from a fossil-fuel economy to a sustainable future. Through her book we can see a world where everyone who wants to claim the dignity of work as their own has that right."
―Sara Nelson, International President, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO
About the Author
Pavlina R. Tcherneva is Professor at Bard College and Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute.
- Print length140 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPolity
- Publication dateJuly 7, 2020
- Dimensions4.8 x 0.6 x 7.4 inches
- ISBN-101509542108
- ISBN-13978-1509542109
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Product details
- Publisher : Polity; 1st edition (July 7, 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 140 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1509542108
- ISBN-13 : 978-1509542109
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.8 x 0.6 x 7.4 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #382,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Unemployment
- #232 in Economic Policy
- #284 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Pavlina R. Tcherneva is a U.S. economist, specializing in Modern Monetary Theory and public policy. Her book The Case for a Job Guarantee is one of The Financial Times best economics books in 2020. It is the ultimate guide to the benefits of one of the most transformative public policies being discussed today around the globe. She has worked with policy makers from the US and abroad on designing and evaluating employment programs and frequently speaks at Central Banks on Modern Monetary Theory and macro-economic stabilization policies. Tcherneva’s first book Full Employment and Price Stability (2004) is a rare collection of writings on employment and inflation by Nobel Prize winning economist William Vickrey, adapted for the modern day.
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Top reviews from the United States
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There is a better way, as Tcherneva outlines in her book. Her proposal for a federal job guarantee, if enacted, would benefit practically everyone. It would largely eliminate all of the socioeconomic pathologies associated with long-term unemployment - by eliminating long-term unemployment. Workers would enjoy better working conditions and benefits. Employers would have happier and more productive employees. Businesses would have a larger and more prosperous customer base. Recessions would be less likely, less severe and much shorter. Read this book!
Also, the kindle sample doesn't even let you read the preface or any of the chapters. That needs fixed.
There is no greater hedge against destitution for a society living in a monetary economy than a Job Guarantee and progressives must dig in, roll up their sleeves and read this amazing book. Once they consume it. Understand it... They will be empowered to make meaningful change.
Well done Dr Tcherneva. You are amazing and this book is a masterpiece.
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2020
There is no greater hedge against destitution for a society living in a monetary economy than a Job Guarantee and progressives must dig in, roll up their sleeves and read this amazing book. Once they consume it. Understand it... They will be empowered to make meaningful change.
Well done Dr Tcherneva. You are amazing and this book is a masterpiece.
Top reviews from other countries
The author explains very clearly and succinctly how the US Government – and any other government that issues its own currency – can eliminate unemployment, stabilise the economy and get a green new deal moving at the same time. Tcherneva is a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which argues that what such governments can “afford” is limited not by money but by the real resources available to be bought with the money they create.
Current economic policy explicitly uses unemployment as a tool to control inflation based on the dubious idea that there is a sweet spot, a magic percentage of people out of work, that keeps wages down and prices stable. Tcherneva shows that this sweet spot is fictional, and she presents the Job Guarantee (JG) as an alternative that offers jobs with decent pay, conditions and benefits to everyone who wants one. In effect, it is a buffer stock policy for labour, but one that pays people to do something useful and rewarding rather than to do nothing or to jump through exhausting bureaucratic hoops to prove that they actively looking for work.
Because it would pay the living wage, $15 per hour in the US for example, which would be reviewed every few years instead of being index linked, she argues, the JG would put a firm floor under workers’ earnings without adding long-term inflationary pressure. It would also act as an economic stabiliser because the number of people employed in the scheme would rise when the the private sector sheds jobs and fall when firms start hiring again.
While the national government (the currency issuer) would provide funding, local governments and voluntary organisations would be best able to decide what jobs need doing in their areas, Tcherneva writes, with a strong emphasis on caring for people and the environment. This where the JG would dovetail with a green new deal, drawing on experience of successful schemes from history such as the Civilian Conservation Corps created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, and more recent initiatives from around the world.
The only thing I feel is missing from the book is a discussion of an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) and how it might complement or conflict with the JG, as there is an ongoing debate between proponents of the two big ideas.
However, everyone should read this book. The JG, integrated with a green new deal, is the single most important policy governments can implement to improve the human condition.





