Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea, has been implementing the Youth Basic Income (YBI) programme since April 1, 2019. The English edition of the report on the project was published in July and can be accessed here.
The following is a short introduction by Ikjin Yu, Researcher at Gyeonggi Research Institute, Dept. of Economic & Social Policy.
Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea, has been implementing the Youth Basic Income (YBI) programme since April 1, 2019. In December 2020, Gyeonggi Research Institute (GRI), an affiliated organisation of Gyeonggi Province, published a research report (Korean version), focusing on the first year result of the YBI programme. Recently, in July 2021, GRI has published its English version.
This research report mainly consists of quantitative and qualitative analyses.
For quantitative analysis, the experimental group comprised 11,335 recipients who participated in both the ex-ante and ex-post surveys, whereas the comparison group included 800 respondents who resided in regions other than Gyeonggi Province. There were five categories for analysis such as “happiness”, “health and diet”, “perceptions and attitudes”, “economic activity” and “dream-capital”. The results of the Difference-In-Differences (DID) analysis showed that Gyeonggi YBI positively influenced on their happiness, mental health, workout frequency, diet, perception on gender and equal society, dream-capital, economic activity, time use and so forth.
For qualitative analysis, participants of individual interviews and focus group interviews (FGI) were variously grouped by detailed category. It was conducted on 24-year-olds residing in Gyeonggi Province only who received four rounds of Gyeonggi YBI. A total of 42 participated in the individual interviews and the FGIs. The analysis shows many things regarding Gyeonggi 24-year-olds’ perception of Gyeonggi YBI and basic income itself.
The research report concluded that the Gyeonggi YBI has positively influenced on the 24-year- old youths’ life in various aspects based on the recipients’ experience over the past one year.
With the theme, ‘From the COVID-19 Disaster to New Great Transition, Basic Income!’ the 3rd annual Basic Income International Conference was held in Gyeonggi Provence, South Korea, 28-29 April 2021. Hosted by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, and organised by Gyeonggi Research Institute (GRI), Gyeonggi-do Market Revitalization Agency (GMRA), KINTEX, and the Basic Income Korean Network (BIKN), it featured panel talks and discussion by many researchers from BIEN, including Chair Sarath Davala, Hyosang Ahn, Philippe Van Parijs, Guy Standing, Annie Miller, Troy Henderson, Louise Haagh, Almaz Zelleke, Julio Linares, Roberto Merrill among others. Economist Joseph Stiglitz gave a keynote speech on the second day.
Last Monday, on the 29th of April, a special event was held in Suwon, a city in the province of Gyeonggi-do, just south of Seoul, South Korea. This event was conceived as a fair, the first of its kind, and was focused on basic income, having attracted more than 18 thousand people.
Announced in a previous report, the two-day event was featured by numerous experts on basic income and related policies. It was propelled by the recent adoption, in the cited province, of a local currency unconditional cash transfer to young people (born in 1995), dubbed “Youth Dividend”. This local currency is issued by the city, and so can only be spent in small or mid-size local businesses (which can help boost the local economy).
Moreover, according to Gyeonggi-do spokesperson, Kim Yong, the province regional government will work with other regions of South Korea in order to study basic income implementation “in more depth”. Kim Yong also guarantees there are other basic income-type policies being studied in the province, while the “Youth Dividend” scheme is presented in other 60 regions within South Korea. During the fair, the formation of a “Basic Income Council” was alluded to by local authorities, grouping 34 local autonomies, most within Gyeonggi-do.
The basic income fair was also a way to inform the general public about basic income as a policy itself, and how it is being pursued in the world. A short video report can be watched here (News Center):
