by Peter Knight | Jul 15, 2022 | News
We know the features of the nearly 4,000 social protection responses to Covid-19 globally; but what are we learning from over two years of pandemic measures? A new paper by Ugo Gentilini, Global Lead for Social Assistance with the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank, brings together large datasets and about 300 papers to assess and reflect upon the largest scale up of cash transfers in history. In particular, the paper flashes out differences between Covid-19 and other crises; it lays out an anatomy of global responses and offers novel data analysis around stylized international trends; synthesizes fresh empirical evidence on response effectiveness based on over 40 evaluations; discusses country level operational practices as emerging from an array of high and lower-income contexts; and distills key 10 insights with possible future implications. You can download the report here or learn more about it from this blog.
by Peter Knight | Jul 15, 2022 | News
Basic Income Conversation seeks to spark a Conversation about basic income right across the UK. Hundreds of people are helping us get closer to a basic income for all, one Conversation at a time. You might support basic income and want more people to hear about it. Maybe you’re not quite sure of the idea and want to talk it through. You might want to explore how a basic income would impact your area of work. Perhaps people you work with have asked you to explore the idea. However you’re coming to it, if basic income has piqued your interest it’s time to have the Basic Income Conversation. Click here to learn more!
by Peter Knight | Jul 8, 2022 | Events, News
On Tuesday, 02 August 2022, the FRIBIS Basic Income Workshop Series continues with a contribution of Philosopher & former FRIBIS visiting scholar Dr. Otto Lehto: „Permissionless Innovation, Freedom, and Basic Income“. He is going to present his input and subsequently have a discussion with the audience and Prof. Dr. Karl Widerquist.
Time: 4pm – 5pm (CEST). For full details, click here.
by Peter Knight | Jul 5, 2022 | Events, News
BIEN Members are invited to meet the Founders who established BIEN 34 years ago. PDF Invitation coming soon to this page with Zoom link and times at various locations.
by Peter Knight | Jun 15, 2022 | News
The Basic Income Conversation is an initiative, powered by Compass, to promote the idea of a universal basic income in the UK. The report can be accessed here.
This is the report summary:
“This report examines the distributive impacts of three UBI schemes which raise the income floor to different heights and are broadly designed to provide a potential pathway to attainment of the Minimum Income Standard, MIS. The first is a starter scheme to provide an entry payment; the second an intermediate scheme and the third a full MIS payment to which increases in less generous schemes can be aimed over time. We use microsimulation of data from the Family Resources Survey to outline the static distributive impacts and costs of the schemes.
Our key finding is that a modest, fiscally neutral, scheme has the capacity to cut child poverty to an historic low, below the low point achieved in the 1970s, thus achieve more than the anti-poverty interventions of the New Labour Governments from 2000. Even a modest scheme would significantly improve the living standards and life chances of millions of people and, despite the claims made by some critics of UBI, would be both feasible and affordable. This helps to answer the central practical criticism of introducing a basic income, that the payment levels are either too small to make much difference or too generous to be affordable.”
by Toru Yamamori | May 31, 2022 | Events, News
Malcolm Torry will present his paper titled “Basic Income: A brief history of the idea”. Discussion will follow.
Abstract:
A Basic Income is ‘a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement’ (Basic Income Earth Network [BIEN]). It is always that: but within that definition there has been a significant number of variants during the past two centuries—in relation to how often, how much, to whom, and so on. This paper will explore those variants and the reasons for them, both historically and in the context of today’s lively global debate.
The paper will also discuss those tax and benefits policies that are sometimes regarded as variants of Basic Income but in fact are not, and will briefly outline their histories, their relevance to the history of ideas of Basic Income, and their relationship to the current debate.
The full paper is available here.
The forum will be held via zoom. All are welcome. For the link to zoom, please send email to: cbidbien@gmail.com.
The “Clarification of the Basic Income’s Definition” (CBID) working group is an official working group of BIEN established by the BIEN General Assembly 2019 held in Hyderabad, India. The 1st , 2nd , and 3rd open forums were held during BIEN Congress 2021 in Glasgow, the 4rd open forum was held in October 2021, and the 5th was held in April 2022.
