Recognising Non-Market Public Value: A Contribution-Based Framework for Fiscal Design, Participation, and Legitimacy

This working paper examines how fiscal systems can recognise and support non-monetised public value, including care work, ecological stewardship, and knowledge creation, within a framework grounded in the taxation of economic and exclusive rights and privileges. Such taxation improves equity, efficiency, and institutional coherence by targeting structural advantage, but it does not, on its own, render visible or support contributions that occur outside formal markets or wage-based systems. To address this limitation, the paper develops a contribution-based recognition framework that treats unpaid labour and civic participation as structurally significant forms of public value. Mechanisms such as care credits, ecological service credits, and public participation registries are introduced as non-monetary instruments for recording and validating these contributions without commodification. These instruments operate independently of price and income, and can complement wage-based systems or integrate with broader fiscal architectures, including mission-oriented Job Guarantee programmes. The paper integrates this framework with stock-flow consistent macroeconomic modelling and a typology of value distinguishing creation, extraction, and transfer. It provides a structured approach to fiscal design that remains operational under conditions of growth, stagnation, or steady-state constraint. Version 2.0 introduces substantial structural revisions, including: Replacement of the previous philosophical annex with a technical interdisciplinary framework Rewriting of legal analysis as bounded institutional considerations rather than prescriptive design Significant revision of political economy and class analysis (Section 13) Strengthening of citations and conceptual definitions throughout This remains an independent working paper intended to inform policy development, macroeconomic modelling, and institutional design. Further iterations may extend formal modelling, empirical testing, or implementation pathways.