Speaking to those who know it best: Does participation in an experiment explain citizens’ attitudes to basic income?

Simanainen, Miska; Kangas, Olli

doi:10.1017/ics.2020.14

“…In this chapter, we are interested in the underlying reasons for the support for basic income, that is, why some people are more inclined to favour and others to oppose universal and unconditional income transfers. In previous studies on the support for basic income, socio-economic and demographic factors, such as gender, age, education and income, and political affiliation have been shown to be important explanatory variables Kangas, 2004, 2005;Pulkka, 2018;Roosma and van Oorschot, 2020;Simanainen and Kangas, 2020). In our subsequent inspections, we extend the analysis by studying other potential determinants of basic income support.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Meanwhile, 58 percent of those with a fixed full-time contract supported basic income. Finally, the support rate for basic income was as high as 71 percent in the group with a fixed part-time contract (Simanainen and Kangas, 2020).…”

Section: Income Inadequacy and Insecure Employmentmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…About 43 percent of the respondents who indicated that they had no difficulties meeting their needs supported basic income. On the other hand, about 54 percent of those who had some difficulties in meeting their needs with household income, and about 74 percent of those who had major difficulties, reported supporting basic income (Simanainen and Kangas, 2020).…”

Section: Income Inadequacy and Insecure Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What explains the popular support for basic income?

Simanainen¹,

Kangas²

2021

Experimenting With Unconditional Basic Income

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“…Based on these three objections, (i) the counterproductive effects of the experiments, (ii) the superiority of ethical reasons, and (iii) the poor epistemic robustness of the results, it can be argued that experiments are not necessary to justify UBI. However, the evidence shows that there is some acceptance of the idea of UBI in countries where experiments have been carried out, suggesting that they are precisely the countries where such a policy may have greater chance of being implemented (Perkiö, Rincón, & van Draanen, 2019; Simanainen & Kangas, 2020). This suggests that the question we should be asking is not whether experiments are necessary, but rather whether they are useful and to what extent.…”

Section: No Experiments Are Not Necessarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Epistemic Necessity and Political Utility: The Role of Basic Income Experiments

Laín¹

2022

J Policy Anal Manage

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DO WE NEED MORE UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME EXPERIMENTS?While the notion of universal basic income (UBI) has been around for many decades, the idea has recently gained more traction in the United States. A 2020 poll from the Pew Research Center found that almost half (45 percent) of survey respondents would support a guaranteed payment of $1,000 per month to all adults, regardless of their working status. Several politicians have campaigned in recent years on implementing a local or federal UBI, and stimulus payments during the COVID-19 pandemic have further heightened the debate.As more cities, states, and countries have experimented with implementing UBIs, there have been growing opportunities for researchers to understand the potential implications of this policy. For example, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, which provides $500 monthly payments to a random selection of the city's residents, found that the payments increased financial stability, full-time employment, and health and wellness. These findings, along with those of other experiments, have drawn much attention as other cities consider implementing similar programs both in the U.S. and worldwide. However, researchers and policymakers are now facing a critical question: how much more evidence on the impacts of universal basic income is needed? That is, do we have enough evidence to support rolling out these programs more broadly, or are more experiments needed in order to further refine UBI policies and understand their potential effects?In this issue, Bru Laín, of the University of Barcelona, argues that while further experiments can be useful, the extensive evidence base that has already accumulated renders them unnecessary. Therefore, he feels that the establishment and implementation of UBI policies should not wait for further evidence. Amy Castro, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Stacia West, of the University of Tennessee -Knoxville, respond to Laín's argument by highlighting remaining gaps in the body of evidence on UBI. They assert that further experimentation is needed before widespread UBI adoption to ensure that well-intentioned programs do not result in far worse outcomes for the populations that they aim to support. In his response, Laín argues that the evidence is clear that UBI generates positive effects for the targeted population, hence justifying UBI policies, while he agrees with Castro and West about the need for additional research on effective UBI implementation.

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“…Based on these three objections, (i) the counterproductive effects of the experiments, (ii) the superiority of ethical reasons, and (iii) the poor epistemic robustness of the results, it can be argued that experiments are not necessary to justify UBI. However, the evidence shows that there is some acceptance of the idea of UBI in countries where experiments have been carried out, suggesting that they are precisely the countries where such a policy may have greater chance of being implemented (Perkiö, Rincón, & van Draanen, 2019;Simanainen & Kangas, 2020). This suggests that the question we should be asking is not whether experiments are necessary, but rather whether they are useful and to what extent.…”

Section: Weak Epistemic Validitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy Details as a Plea for Basic Income Experiments

Laín¹

2022

J Policy Anal Manage

0

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DO WE NEED MORE UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME EXPERIMENTS?While the notion of universal basic income (UBI) has been around for many decades, the idea has recently gained more traction in the United States. A 2020 poll from the Pew Research Center found that almost half (45 percent) of survey respondents would support a guaranteed payment of $1,000 per month to all adults, regardless of their working status. Several politicians have campaigned in recent years on implementing a local or federal UBI, and stimulus payments during the COVID-19 pandemic have further heightened the debate.As more cities, states, and countries have experimented with implementing UBIs, there have been growing opportunities for researchers to understand the potential implications of this policy. For example, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, which provides $500 monthly payments to a random selection of the city's residents, found that the payments increased financial stability, full-time employment, and health and wellness. These findings, along with those of other experiments, have drawn much attention as other cities consider implementing similar programs both in the U.S. and worldwide. However, researchers and policymakers are now facing a critical question: how much more evidence on the impacts of universal basic income is needed? That is, do we have enough evidence to support rolling out these programs more broadly, or are more experiments needed in order to further refine UBI policies and understand their potential effects?In this issue, Bru Laín, of the University of Barcelona, argues that while further experiments can be useful, the extensive evidence base that has already accumulated renders them unnecessary. Therefore, he feels that the establishment and implementation of UBI policies should not wait for further evidence. Amy Castro, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Stacia West, of the University of Tennessee -Knoxville, respond to Laín's argument by highlighting remaining gaps in the body of evidence on UBI. They assert that further experimentation is needed before widespread UBI adoption to ensure that well-intentioned programs do not result in far worse outcomes for the populations that they aim to support. In his response, Laín argues that the evidence is clear that UBI generates positive effects for the targeted population, hence justifying UBI policies, while he agrees with Castro and West about the need for additional research on effective UBI implementation.

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Speaking to those who know it best: Does participation in an experiment explain citizens’ attitudes to basic income?

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

What explains the popular support for basic income?

What explains the popular support for basic income?

Between Epistemic Necessity and Political Utility: The Role of Basic Income Experiments

Policy Details as a Plea for Basic Income Experiments

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