by Karl Widerquist | Sep 9, 2013 | Research
In this article, Allan Sheahen discusses the growing problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality in the United States, and argues that BIG can provide the solution. Allan Sheahen is a board member of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network and the author of the Basic Income Guarantee: Your Right to Economic Security. He can be reached by email at alsheahen@prodigy.net.
Allan Sheahen, “Basic Income Guarantee: Why now is the right time,” The Californian, Sep. 5, 2013
by Yannick Vanderborght | Sep 7, 2013 | Research
This opinion piece discusses how to get people to sign the EU petition for basic income.
Henrik Roseno, “Unconditional Basic Income and Joint Division of Labor is a natural evolution of democratic societies,” Transformation.dk, September the 3rd, 2013
by Yannick Vanderborght | Sep 6, 2013 | News, Research
The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) recently completed a large pilot project on Basic Income in India. The association’s June Newsletter reports on the methodology and findings of the study.
The project randomly assigned 8 out of 20 villages in the study to receive the grant, while the other 12 villages were used as controls. Every adult man and woman in the treatment villages received a grant of 200 Rupees (about US$3 or N$30) per month and every child received 100 Rupees per month. After one year, the amounts were increased to 300 Rupees and 150 Rupees respectively. A total of 6,000 individuals in the 8 villages received the grants for 12 to 17 months. The amount was equivalent to about 20 to 30 percent of household income for the lower-income families in the study.
Researchers conducting the study found that the grants significantly reduced hunger, malnutrition, and illness among recipients. Recipients increased ownership of livestock, reduced, improved school attendance, improved school attendance, and increased investment in agricultural implements. Researchers found no increase in alcohol consumption in the treatment villages. Importantly, the study also found that grant recipients worked more than people in the control villages and that they were three times more likely to start a new business. These results for a positive effect on work effort and earned income (found both the Uganda and the India studies) are confirmed by evidence from cash transfer programs. For example, in South Africa, the Old Age Pension, the Child Support Grant, and the Disability Grant all helped to raise labor force participation and employment.
SEWA, “Unconditional cash transfers: SEWA pilots a unique experiment in Madhya Pradesh,” We the Self-Employed: SEWA’s Electronic Newsletter, No. 50, June 2013.
No. 50, June 2013
by BIEN Ireland | Sep 5, 2013 | Research
This article Irish Examiner argues in favour of basic income. Summary: Paid work is a scarce resource. Basic income is one way to support people to share the paid work available and still have a decent income. It’s also a way to show we value all the unpaid work that people do in communities and households. Victoria White comes at this subject from an unusual angle and advocates basic income as part of the response.
Victoria White, “We need to stop tax system incentivising dual-income families,” Irish Examiner, Thursday, August 22, 2013
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 3, 2013 | Research
Irish blogger Lui Smyth identifies three tendencies in our contemporary situation which makes a basic income a lively (and necessary) possibility: The decline of the middle class, the end of full employment and the rise of a non-market economy. Originally published on the author’s blog, simulacrum.cc, this article has been widely reposted.
Lui, Smyth, “Three trends that will create a demand for basic income,” Simulacrum, July 10, 2013. https://simulacrum.cc/2013/07/10/three-trends-that-push-us-towards-an-unconditional-basic-income/
Also appears at: https://basicincome.org.uk/opinions/2013/08/trends-for-basic-income/
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 2, 2013 | Research
Evelyn Forget
From 1974 to 1979, a basic income social experiment known under the name of “Mincome Program” took place in a small Canadian town. Evelyn Forget, researcher, is one of the very few persons who have studied the sociological impact of the guaranteed income experiment. In this interview with Stanislas Jourdan, she explains more about her findings, 30 years after the experiment ended.
Stanislas Jourdan, “A Way to Get Healthy: Basic Income Experiments in Canada,” Basic Income UK, August 7, 2013. This article was first published in french on revenudebase.info
