The Basic Income Lab at the University of Stanford has published a useful overview report, What we know about Universal Basic Income: A cross-synthesis of reviews

This report is structured as follows. First, it provides an overview of the reviews. Then it synthesizes the basis of evidence (e.g., experiments, policies, and programs) that has been used to arrive at conclusions about UBI as well as the types of outcomes that have been of interest to researchers and the evidence that exists for these outcomes. The final section highlights gaps in the current state of the evidence and where future research is required.


Readers might wish to be aware of how definitions are used in this report. ‘UBI’ means ‘a cash transfer given to all members of a community on a recurrent basis regardless of income level and with no strings attached’; and ‘UBI-type’ means a cash benefit with some of the characteristics of a Basic Income, but not others. Particular care needs to be taken over the word ‘unconditional’. In this report, ‘unconditional’ can mean that receipt of the income is conditional on having a low income, but is not conditional in any other way.