This book brings together insights and reflections following a set of interviews conducted with the main stakeholders involved in past, current, and future basic income experiments. It provides an analysis of some of the major elements and factors influencing experiments, as well of some of their most important outputs understood as results of their own experimental design, their sociological and political basis, and the epistemological status of their results.
By pursuing a bottom-up strategy, where the interviews conducted take a pivotal role in the collection and analysis phase of the book, this book gathers key questions relating to policy experiments. Some questions reflected upon include the general idea of why one should engage and implement a basic income experiment, and the paradox consisting in the fact that most basic income experiments fall short of being closely considered “pure” basic income schemes. In facing the question and the paradox head-on, the book assesses questions of experimental design, the political and social context surrounding the policy, and the main results and what can they tell us about basic income.
Author(s): Roberto Merrill, Catarina Neves, Bru Laín
Series: Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 239
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 UBI and Conditional Transfers
1.2 The Surge in UBI Experiments and Their Limitations
1.3 Methodology
1.4 Our Interviewees
1.5 The Case Studies
1.5.1 Experiments from the 1960s to 1970s in the USA and Canada
1.5.2 Alaska’s Permanent Fund
1.5.3 Outline of Our Case Studies
1.5.4 The Experiments in India
1.5.5 The Experiment in Namibia
1.5.6 The Experiment in Finland
1.5.7 The Experiment in the Netherlands
1.5.8 The Experiment in Ontario
1.5.9 The B-MINCOME Experiment in Barcelona
1.5.10 The GiveDirectly Experiments in Kenya
1.5.11 The Experiments in the USA: Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED)
1.5.12 The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Dividend (USA)
1.5.13 Macau’s Wealth Partaking Scheme
1.5.14 Renda Básica Da cidadania—the Local Currency Policy in Maricá, Brazil
1.5.15 Youth Basic Income Policy in South Korea
1.5.16 Iran’s Universal Subsidy Policy
1.5.17 Basic Income Pilot Project in Germany
1.5.18 The Basic Income Debate in Scotland
1.6 The Outline of the Book
References
Part I What We Have Learned from the Interviews
2 The Goal, Context, and Methods Behind Our Case Studies
2.1 What Goals Are Behind Our Case Studies?
2.2 Can We Really Call Them UBI Experiments?
2.3 The Role Played by Methodological Decisions
2.4 The Role of the Context: UBI Experiments Do Not Occur in a Vacuum
References
3 What Do Our Case Studies Tell Us?
3.1 Do We Already Know Enough?
3.1.1 Welfare and Health Benefits
3.1.2 Labor Market Participation
3.1.3 Autonomy
3.1.4 Economic Activity
3.1.5 Investments in Education
3.2 Experiments Play Several Roles
References
Part II New Questions the Interviews Have Raised
4 The Decision to Implement UBI Experiments
4.1 Moral and Instrumental Arguments to Implement UBI Experiments
4.2 Social Scientists and Politicians
4.3 How the Debate, Political Scenario, and the Welfare Model Frame the Decision to Implement UBI Experiments
4.4 Experiments’ Features Are More Due to Political Reasons Than Scientific Ones
References
5 How Results Are Interpreted
5.1 How Results Are Interpreted and Analyzed: The Context and the Objective of Experiments
5.2 National and International Media Coverage
5.3 Additional Related Effects That Received Less Attention
5.3.1 Identity, Power Relations, and Community Engagement
5.3.2 Empowering Women
5.3.3 Community Empowerment and Trust
5.3.4 Shortcomings of Unconditional Cash Grants
References
6 From Experiment to Policy Implementation?
6.1 Basic Income Experiments: Their Role as Political and Research Tools
6.2 Experiments: Political Opportunity Costs, Manipulation, and Populism
6.3 Experimenting or Lobbying: Which Path Forward?
References
Part III How to Answer the New Questions About Basic Income Experiments, Pilots and Policies?
7 How the Findings Help Advance the Basic Income Debate and Advocacy
7.1 Do We Still Have Questions?
7.2 In Between Motivations: The Interplay Between Stakeholders Involved in Designing and Implementing UBI Experiments
7.3 Toward a Pandemic Basic Income?
References
8 Conclusion: Why Should We Conduct Basic Income Experiments, Pilots, or Policies?
References
Exhibits
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
Index
