An article by Sigal Samuel entitled “Everywhere basic income has been tried, in one map Which countries have experimented with basic income — and what were the results?” is now available online.
To read the article click here.
Article summarizing results of UBI programs and pilots worldwide
I should like to see an analysis of the costs of adjudicating schemes that are conditional. There are many financial assistance packages that depend on a demonstrable problem, such as of health. These require assessments that are often expensive, and use the time and resources of specialists who might otherwise be doing more useful work.
Once a condition attracts money, if it has no sharp natural discontinuity, it can generate a whole industry of evaluation with queues of people trying and sometimes failing to prove their eligibility for the benefit.
With international aid and charities, there is a tradition of publishing the administration costs of a scheme compared to the benefits that the target demographic receives. How much food gets to the hungry, compared to how much gets spent on white landcruisers, etc.
There should be a similar tradition in the evaluation of conditional benefits. How much gets spent on people with health problems or a disability, compared to the costs spent on medical specialists and lawyers adjudicating the claims.
I suspect that an awareness of those costs would make UBI look more attractive.