by Malcolm Torry | Sep 28, 2020 | News
As no General Assembly could be held this year, as many of the General Assembly functions as possible were conducted by postal ballot.
Executive Committee and other elections
None of the Executive Committee or other posts due for election had more than one candidate standing, and all of the candidates were approved by confirmatory ballots. The Executive Committee and other posts for 2020-21 can be found here.
Resolutions were passed as follows:
Annual accounts and reports were received;
A new internal rule relating to the international Advisory Board was passed (the rule requires the Executive Committee to administer and convene a meeting of the Board if it calls the meeting, and requires the Chair to administer and convene the meeting if the Chair calls it);
The Executive Committee was asked to explore with the Charity Commission whether General Assemblies can be held online in the future if required;
Three options were proposed for the frequency of BIEN congresses: annually; once every two years; and once every two years with regional conference during the intervening years. The decision was for congresses to be held annually.
by Malcolm Torry | Sep 28, 2020 | News, Opinion, Research
McKinsey, the consultancy company, has published an article about the Finland Basic Income experiment.
The final results from Finland’s experiment are now
in, and the findings are intriguing: the basic income
in Finland led to a small increase in employment,
significantly boosted multiple measures of the
recipients’ well-being, and reinforced positive
individual and societal feedback loops. …
As with any policy analysis, the results of this
experiment remain subject to debate and can’t
necessarily be generalized. As a result, the
experiment does offer an object lesson in the
complexity of designing and implementing
a randomized control trial of basic income.
Nevertheless, more research on basic income is
required. We can hope that Finland’s example
will inform and inspire others as they set up their
own experiments.
by Malcolm Torry | Sep 17, 2020 | News
The City Council has passed a resolution asking for a Basic Income pilot project to take place in the city.
The Council’s debate can be found here
and the papers related to the debate here.
by Malcolm Torry | Sep 16, 2020 | News, Research
Innovations for Poverty Action has published a research paper, ‘Effects of a Universal Basic Income During the Pandemic’.
We examine some effects of Universal Basic Income (UBI) during the COVID-19 pandemic using a large-scale experiment in rural Kenya. Transfers significantly improved well-being on common measures such as hunger, sickness and depression in spite of the pandemic, but with modest effect sizes. They may have had public health benefits, as they reduced hospital visits and decreased social (but not commercial) interactions that influence contagion rates. During the pandemic (and contemporaneous agricultural lean season) recipients lost the income gains from starting new non-agricultural enterprises that they had initially obtained, but also suffered smaller increases in hunger. This pattern is consistent with the idea that UBI induced recipients to take on more income risk in part by mitigating the most harmful consequences of adverse shocks.
To download the paper, click here.
by Malcolm Torry | Sep 15, 2020 | Research
Luca Michele Cigna has written a master’s degree thesis about trade unions’ positions on Basic income: Looking for a North Star? Trade unions’ positions in the Universal Basic Income debate
First, unions’ propensity to support a UBI depends on
the degrees of socio-economic insecurity. In contexts characterised by high levels of poverty,
unemployment and precariousness, UBI proposals look more attractive in the eyes of union leaders.
Secondly, welfare regime generosity is a strong explanans of trade unions’ support. Less
encompassing welfare systems encourage trade unionists to regard UBI as a legitimate policy
alternative. Third, trade unions’ attachment to the work ethic and the insurance principle affects their
preferences for unconditionality and universality in policy settings. Fourth, their role in the industrial
landscape, and their degree of organisational inclusivity, have a strong influence on UBI support.
