Abstract

MARIO, Agustín. Expanding the meaning of work: the Social Income with Work‐Argentina Works Program as a limited employer of last resort. Trab. soc. [online]. 2017, n.29, pp.555-581. ISSN 1514-6871.

This article analyzes the Social Income with Work (PRIST), of the Argentina Works line of social policy, implemented in August of 2009. First, we describe the transformations in matter of social policy that took place during the Kirchner-Era emphasizing the circumstances that led to the implementation of the program under analysis. Then, we examine the PRIST´s institutional design and evaluate some data from the Social Development Ministry (MDS) that allow to account for the number of beneficiaries, their characteristics, the activities undertaken as part of the program, the response of the beneficiaries, and the relation between program participation and the insertion in the labor market. The PRIST constitutes a partial or limited employer of last resort (ELR) program; in that sense, we then compare the ELR theoretical proposal with the PRIST. Finally, we discuss the main objections that the literature has done regarding the design and implementation of the program. Using the PRIST experience, we show how the ELR can generate employment -y, thus, provide income. Moreover, the PRIST experience shows that an ELR program can contribute to the re-definition of the meaning of work, by recognizing that certain forms of work, unrecognized by the private market, are socially useful.

Keywords : Argentina works; Employer of last resort; Work.

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