by USBIG | May 21, 2016 | Research
This article, originally published in 2006, has been re-released on the author because of the renewed importance of automation in the basic income debate
Abstract: This article draws lessons about the automation revolution by looking back at predictions John Maynard Keynes made back in 1928 about what technological innovation could do for humanity. Keynes rightly predicted the enormous economic growth the economy would experience for the rest of the twentieth century but wrongly predicted that it would greatly reduce the work week. This article examines how he got it so right and so wrong, and uses that examination to draw lessons about dealing with the automation revolution today. Automation is nothing new. Its potential—both to improve life and to disrupt people’s lives—as been accumulating for hundreds of years. Far too often we have allowed technological innovation to disrupt the labor market without allowing most people to take full advantage of the benefits it makes possible.
by Kate McFarland | May 18, 2016 | Research
Sergi Raventós (Autonomous University of Barcelona) recently completed a doctoral thesis on the topic of basic income and mental health.
In the dissertation, Raventós — who also works in a mental health foundation in Barcelona and is a member of the board of the Red Renta Básica — examines empirical evidence concerning the effects of direct cash payments (in India, Namibia, North Carolina, Kenya, and Alaska, for example) and concludes that, among other benefits, unconditional cash payments tend to lead to improved mental health in communities where they are instituted.
Plausibly, a basic income could ameliorate the social and economic inequality and insecurity that Raventós demonstrates to have a destructive effect on mental health.
Raventós, Sergi (2016) Socioeconomic Inequality and Mental Health: The Proposal of a Basic Income as a Means to Protect and Promote Mental Health, Barcelona: Autonomous University of Barcelona (Doctoral Thesis).
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to provide a theoretical approximation to mental health and several related concepts. The social determinants of (mental) health have shown in recent years that human beings are susceptible to economic uncertainty, precariousness of their living conditions and social inequality.
This study considers social and especially income inequalities, and how they affect mental health, drawing attention to the extraordinary importance of policies aiming at social and economic protection, which are seen as essential for offering stability and security in people’s lives and health. The political orientations of a range of health-oriented institutions and agencies working to promote mental health and to reduce social inequality are considered, while critical evaluation is made of some policies being implemented by the Spanish and Catalan governments at a time of serious economic crisis and a concomitant rise of mental health problems deriving from poverty, unemployment and job insecurity. In this situation of severe economic recession and drastically increased poverty, and with everything it entails in terms of psychological suffering and mental health problems, the Spanish and Catalan governments have resorted to the same measures they have used in periods of economic growth, obsolete strategies which have proven ineffective in the long, unabating crisis. All of this has contributed towards worsening economic insecurity which, as a range of research projects have demonstrated, has serious consequences for mental health.
The study concludes with a discussion of Basic Income, a social protection measure offering economic security which has been tested in several countries. Experiments whereby unconditional cash payments made over different periods to target populations in India, Namibia, North Carolina, Kenya, Alaska, for example, have provided empirical evidence of improvement in different aspects of health and mental health in particular, together with a reduction of social inequalities and poverty, advances in education, human relations, and in the economic sphere, inter alia.
by Karl Widerquist | May 5, 2016 | Research
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of a social experiment from the 1970s called the Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment (Mincome). I examine Mincome’s “saturation” site located in Dauphin, Manitoba, where all town residents were eligible for guaranteed annual income payments for three years. Drawing on archived qualitative participant accounts I show that the design and framing of Mincome led participants to view payments through a pragmatic lens, rather than the moralistic lens through which welfare is viewed. Consistent with prior theory, this paper finds that Mincome participation did not produce social stigma. More broadly, this paper bears on the feasibility of alternative forms of socioeconomic organization through a consideration of the moral aspects of economic policy. The social meaning of Mincome was sufficiently powerful that even participants with particularly negative attitudes toward government assistance felt able to collect Mincome payments without a sense of contradiction. By obscuring the distinctions between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, universalistic income maintenance programs may weaken social stigmatization and strengthen program sustainability.
David Calnitsky, “‘More Normal than Welfare’: The Mincome Experiment, Stigma, and Community Experience,” Canadian Review of Sociology 53, no. 1, pages 26–71, February 2016
by Kate McFarland | Apr 28, 2016 | Research
On June 5th, the people of Switzerland will go to the polls to vote on a referendum to enact a basic income — marking the first time that a basic income has been submitted to the popular vote. Although the basic income initiative received little support in Parliament, about 40% of Swiss citizens support the referendum, according to a recent survey.
A new book, Voting for Freedom by Daniel Häni and Philip Kovce, lays out the arguments for a basic income in Switzerland, and explains why the referendum is a “milestone in the advancement of democracy.”
As the book’s press release describes the basic income initiative, “The proposal creates new alliances and causes old ones to fall apart. The reason: Unconditional basic income asks the right questions.”
Daniel Häni was one of the instigators of the popular initiative for a basic income; he is also CEO and co-founder of unternehmen mitte, Switzerland’s largest coffee house. Philip Kovce is a freelance writer and a researcher that the Basler Philosophicum and Witten Institute of Economics and Philosophy, as well as a member of Think Tank 30.
Prominent venture capitalist Albert Wenger (partner of Union Square Ventures) writes the forward.
Thanks to my supporters on Patreon. (Click the link to see how you too can support my work for Basic Income News.)
by Kate McFarland | Mar 28, 2016 | Research
University of Tampere
Last November, Finland’s plans to test a basic income caught the attention of international media. Although the experiments are still some months away (scheduled to begin in 2017), the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (KELA) has continued to make strides in investigating the possibilities for a basic income.
KELA has recently published a working paper that reviews the current state of the debate on basic income and assesses the pros and cons of various specific proposals.
Johanna Perkiö, a doctoral candidate at the University of Tampere, has written a useful summary of the KELA paper — including a description of the differences between the models of a basic income proposed by the Green Party, the Left Alliance, the think tank Libera, the Christian Democratic Party, and the Social Democratic Youth Organization.
Perkiö also discusses the challenge of removing disincentives to work during the study, given that traditional benefits will remain in place during the trials. She broaches solutions such as a negative income tax system and reduction of benefits on a sliding scale.
To learn more about the variety of basic income models under consideration:
Johanna Perkiö, “Universal basic income: A search for alternative models,” Tutkimusblogi, January 25th, 2016.
Thanks to my supporters on Patreon. (Click the link to see how you too can support my work for Basic Income News.)
by Kate McFarland | Mar 23, 2016 | Research
Source: Springer
Economist Maximilian Sommer (Katholische Universität Eichstätt – Ingolstadt) has published a book-length investigation into a financially feasible basic income scheme for Germany, encompassing arguments for an unconditional basic income, implementation details, and anticipated consequences of the policy.
The model that Sommer proposes is based on a negative income tax.
From the publisher’s description:
“This book analyzes the consequences that would arise if Germany’s means-tested unemployment benefits were replaced with an unconditional basic income. The basic income scheme introduced is based on a negative income tax and calibrated to be both financially feasible and compatible with current constitutional legislation. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) the author examines the impact of the reform on the household labor supply as well as on both poverty and inequality measures. It is shown that by applying reasonable values for both the basic income and the implied marginal tax rate imposed on earned incomes, efficiency gains can be reconciled with generally accepted value statements. Furthermore, as the proposal includes a universal basic income for families, child poverty could be reduced considerably. The estimates are based on the discrete choice approach to labor supply.”
Free previews of the books are available at the publisher’s website.
Reference:
Maximilian Sommer, “A Feasible Basic Income Scheme for Germany: Effects on Labor Supply, Poverty, and Income Inequality“, Springer, 2016
