Research posts
Here you will find notices about research and research results relating to Basic Income
Linda Raven, “Basic Income Grant in Namibia”
Linda Raven, an American who works in Namibia teaching visiting university students, uses this blog to discuss Karl Widerquist’s two talks on BIG in Namibia in September. Raven contrasts the two talks—one given at a symposium hosted by the central bank, the other...
Nicholas Vrousalis, "Exploitation, Vulnerability, and Social Domination"
This paper develops and defends an account of exploitation that is based on the kindred ideas of vulnerability and power, and argues against accounts of exploitation based on distributive justice. One strand of the argument consists in showing that a universal basic...
Elvis Muraranganda, “US academic wants Namibia to go BIG”
This article reports on Karl Widerquist’s lecture on BIG at the Bank of Namibia conference and on Social Safety Nets on September 26, 2013. The article also reports on the debate over BIG in Namibia. According to Widerquist, the quotes in the article are inaccurate,...
Thames Valley Plan C, “UBI: A Necessary Part of Progress”
This article (authored by Andrew and Elliot from Thames Valley Plan C) outlines the revolutionary potential offered by a universal basic income. Beyond the boons of added security and large-scale reductions in poverty lie the seeds of a more profound societal...
Tina Rosenberg, "The Benefits of Cash Without Conditions"
[Timothy Roscoe Carter] In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Tina Rosenberg summarizes recent results from the Give Directly campaign in Kenya and a couple of other unconditional cash transfer programs in Uganda and contrasts them with conditional transfer...
Jürg Müller, “The ‘emancipation of Switzerland or an ‘attack on the welfare state’? The debate over a basic income”
[Craig Axford] Jürg Müller of the Swiss Review reports proponents of an unconditional basic income (UBI) are planning to submit 100,000 signatures or more to Switzerland’s Federal Chancellery on October 13th. (Organizers of the initiative have since moved that date up...
Jonny Steinberg, “Idea of jobs for all blinds us to need for welfare”
[Craig Axford] Jonny Steinberg, professor of African Studies at Oxford University, argues that South Africa’s failure to provide grants to unemployed young men is shifting the burden of supporting this segment of the nation’s population onto the working poor. This has...
Thomas Smith, “The Guaranteed Basic Income – Reality or Utopia?”
[By Craig Axford] In this blog post Frank Thomas Smith recounts a recent visit to Germany where he first encountered the idea of a basic guaranteed income. He explores the challenges companies and employees face as automation and outsourcing continue to reduce the...
Olga Khazan, “The Case for Unconditional Handouts to the Poor”
[By Craig Axford] In this article in The Atlantic, Olga Khazan points to recent research coming out of Morocco that demonstrates unconditional handouts to those in need leads to better outcomes than conditional handouts. Many fail to enrol in conditional programs at...
Francine Mestrum, "Basic income: a solution?"
In this opinion piece (in Dutch) published on 27 August 2013 by www.dewereldmorgen.be, Francine Mestrum (a lecturer in social sciences in Antwerp, Belgium) scrutinizes the pros and cons of a basic income. In the end, she remains quite skeptical, as she stresses the...
Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght, "Il reddito minimo universale"
Bocconi University Press has just published a second edition of "Il reddito minimo universale", an introductory book on basic income written by Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght (Louvain University). Originally published in French in 2005, this book had...
Bob Lord, “Basic Income Guarantee”
This op-ed piece in the Tucson Citizen argues for a Basic Income Guarantee. The author, Bob Lord, writes, “We've reached a level of national income that we have the means to do so. The real question is whether we have the morality to do so.” Bob Lord, “The Basic...
