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 Karl Widerquist | Aug 13, 2013 | News
Karl Widerquist will discuss the basic income guarantee as a way to provide a more effective social safety net in Namibia at a conference in Windhoek on September 26, 2013. He will discuss the experience in Alaska with its dividend program as well as pilot projects in Namibia, Indian, Uganda, and other places. The conference is hosted by the Namibian central bank.
Karl Widerquist is an Associate Professor at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University. He holds two doctorates—one in Political Theory from Oxford University (2006) and one in Economics from the City University of New York (1996). He has published six books, the most recent of which is Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A theory of freedom as the power to say no.
Karl Widerquist, “Social safety nets in Namibia: Assessing current programmes and future options,” Featured Speaker, Windhoek, Namibia, Bank of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, September 26, 2013. For more information, see the following two websites:
https://www.bon.com.na/Annual-Symposium.aspx
https://www.bon.com.na/Annual-Symposium/Annual-Symposium-Speakers.aspx
Annual Symposium: Social safety nets in Namibia
by Yannick Vanderborght | Aug 6, 2013 | Research
This story begins, “A new pilot study at Panthbadodiya could significantly change living conditions for the poor, and India’s approach to fighting poverty. The village is taking part in the Madhya Pradesh Unconditional Cash Transfer Initiative, a project run by the Self Employed Women’s Association (Sewa; a trade union that has defended the rights of women with low incomes in India for 40 years), with subsidies from Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) India. The research director, Sarath Dewala, explained: ‘The experiment involves giving individuals a small sum of money, at regular intervals, as a supplement to all other forms of income, and observing what happens to their families if this sum is given unconditionally.’ …”
Fernandez, Benjamin “Rupees in your pocket,” the Morung Express, 2013
by BICN | Jul 31, 2013 | News
[July 26, 2013 – The Basic Income Canada Network / Reseau Canadien Pour Le Revenu Garanti]
BICN
The Basic Income Canada Network / Reseau Canadien Pour Le Revenu Garanti (BICN) has announced some of the keynote speakers for the Fifteenth Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). BIEN has held a Congress every second year since 1986.
The 2014 congress will take place at the McGill Faculty of Law in Montreal, Quebec from June 26th to June 29th, 2014. The theme of the 2014 BIEN Congress is “Re-democratizing the Economy”. The congress aims to engage BIEN’s affiliate networks and the public in a sustained discussion about the role of a basic income guarantee in re-democratizing the economy, nationally and globally.
The following speakers have so far agreed to join the discussion:
- Roberto Gargarella, Professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at University College London, author of The Legal Foundation of Inequality: Constitutionalism in the Americas, 1776-1860 (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Latin American Constitutionalism,1810-2010: The Engine Room of the Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2013).
- Renana Jhabvala, President of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Bharat, India, and author of The Idea of Work (Indian Academy For Self Employed Women, 2012) and Social Income and Insecurity: A Study in Gujarat (Routledge, 2010)
- Linda McQuaig, Journalist, columnist, social critic, and best-selling author of, most recently, The Trouble with Billionaires (Viking Canada, 2010) and Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality (Beacon Press, 2012)
BICN
- Guy Standing, Professor in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London andCo-President, Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), author of Work After Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship (Edward Elgar, 2009) and The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (Bloomsbury, 2011)
The Congress will also include the 2014 General Assembly meeting of BIEN. The call for papers will be announced early in the fall of 2013. Updates about the congress can be obtained from the Canadian network’s website at: https://biencanada.ca/BIEN2014_Congress.html.
See also BIEN’s website: https://basicincome.org
by Karl Widerquist | Jul 4, 2013 | News
Business Press has been praising GiveDirectly, a direct cash transfer charity. The business press has been reporting very positively on a charity that transfers cash directly to Kenya’s poorest residents. In Kenya, cellphones work like debit cards and it is easy to infer who is poor and who is not by their address or other data. GiveDirectly uses that data and simply sends money to poor people in two low-income districts. Those without a phone can pick up cards and use them in other ways. It is important that charities are able to move with the times and can adapt to what is going on in the world so they can help out those who need it, that is why the use of shared workspaces like Ethical Property, as well as similar others, can be used for charities to come together and work on projects like this so they are able to support what they do in these countries.
Google Giving has donated two and a half million dollars to this charity. They cite the efficiency of it. There may be a few people who aren’t as needy as one would prefer and the phone companies do take some of the transfer but even then, it is more efficient than paying someone to assess every recipient. Also, cash aid creates market demand for food and other needs that could be met by entrepreneurs. Some recipients will use the money to start small businesses or pay school fees.
Intriguingly, the rationale for GiveDirectly that Facebook and Google figures have adopted, mirrors the rationale for a basic income and for projects like ReCivitas’ BIG QUATINGA VELHO and BIG Otjivero. ReCivitas has even less administrative costs than those faced by GiveDirectly. We have also discussed on this page BIG experiments in India. This could beat back the weird perception that a BIG is “impossible”.
For More info see:
Kerry Dolan, “Why Facebook Cofounder Chris Hughes And Google Are Giving Cash Directly To The Poorest,” Forbes, 5/28/2013
Jacqueline Fuller, “Want to Help People? Just Give Them Money,” Harvard Business Review, March 28, 2013
Matthew Yglesias’ article in Slate (see separate BI News report) gives a detailed account of GiveDirectly and its reception.
