Research posts
Here you will find notices about research and research results relating to Basic Income
Karl Widerquist on Keynes and automation, “The Economic Possibilities of Our Grandparents”
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...
Dissertation on Basic Income as a Means to Promote Mental Health
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...
David Calnitsky, “‘More Normal than Welfare’: The Mincome Experiment, Stigma, and Community Experience”
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...
SWITZERLAND: Book on Basic Income Referendum Published
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...
Alternative Models Considered for Finland’s BI Pilot
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...
Maximilian Sommer, “A Feasible Basic Income Scheme for Germany”
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...
Jurgen De Wispelaere and Leticia Morales, “Is there (or should there be) a right to basic income?”
Abstract: A basic income is typically defined as an individual’s entitlement to receive a regular payment as a right, independent of other sources of income, employment or willingness to work, or living situation. In this article, we examine what it means for the...
Jude Thomas, “Vanishing Scarcity. Basic Income as a Means to Preserve Value in the Arts”
In this paper Jude Thomas, a US musician, discusses how within the last two decades « ... growth and improvement of both recording technology and Internet access have brought about fundamental changes in how people create and consume arts ». The story of labor...
Jurgen De Wispelaere, “Basic Income in Our Time: Improving Political Prospects Through Policy Learning”
Abstract: Following the success of a recent Swiss Citizens’ Initiative to grant each citizen an unconditional income guarantee and the Finnish Government's plans to conduct the first national pilot project, the idea of a basic income as a citizens’ right has gained...
José Luis Rey Pérez, “La renta básica ante las elecciones del 20D, ¿una oportunidad perdida?” [“The basic income before the December 20 elections: a missed opportunity”]
According to José Pérez, the Spanish political arena has just lost an important opportunity to ramp up the basic income concept deeply into local and national politics. What has been an idea of continuous growth since 2011 (mainly through social movements like 15M),...
Iñaki Uribarri, “No es una buena idea extender el sistema de rentas mínimas condicionadas de Euskadi al conjunto del Reino de España” [“It is not a good idea to extend Basque Country conditional grant scheme to the whole Spanish territory”]
This article first describes, in detail, 26 years of the conditional minimum income grant scheme in Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (Basque region in Spain). It concludes that such scheme is a failure and so must not be reproduced through all Spanish territory. To radically...
Conor Lynch, “Stephen Hawking sobre el futuro del capitalismo, la desigualdad…y la Renta Básica” [“Stephen Hawking on the future of capitalism, inequality…and the basic income”]
Machines are getting better and better at performing work that was or still is performed by humans. This article starts with Stephen Hawking's thoughts on the issue, which are that without proper wealth distribution, society will become a distopia in which an elite...
