Universal Basic Income: A Review

by Usman W. Chohan

Universal Basic Income is a long-standing umbrella concept that is attracting ever more attention in light of the prognostications of a dire future wherein economic inequality is greatly exacerbated by various socioeconomic and technological factors. This work aims to provide a synthesis of the salient literature and thus provides a timely review.

ebook

Published August 4, 2017

About the author

who is now a Research Fellow (BPS 20) at the Institute of Regional Studies, heading the Economic Development of South Asia program. Previously, he was Advisor and one of the founding Directors of CASS, leading the team on Economic Affairs & National Development. He is among the Top 100 Authors across all subjects & disciplines (out of 2.5 million authors) on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), which is the largest open repository of knowledge in the world. He has authored & edited ten books in the past eight years, all published with Routledge (see below). In the academic realm, his research has been cited widely, and Dr. Chohan has testified before various authorities based on his technical expertise. He has been published in prestigious journals such as Policy & Society, The International Journal of Public Administration, and Parliamentary Affairs.

Dr. Chohan has a PhD in economics from UNSW Australia, where his doctoral work led to the world's first multidisciplinary synthesis of independent legislative fiscal institutions, and an MBA from McGill University (Canada), with coursework at MIT-Tsinghua. He has also been a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum from the Canberra hub.

His previous practitioner experience includes working at the National Bank of Canada and the World Bank. Dr. Chohan has been a speaker at major national conferences such as GSTAR and the Margalla Dialogue, and has taught courses on the digital economy at the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium).

He is also the President of the International Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA), the leading organization worldwide for hyperpolyglotism and whose membership consists of the speakers of six or more languages.

Dr. Usman appears frequently on domestic and international television, podcasts, and lecture series in various languages. He leads and hosts The Economic Angle podcast series. He is also trained in South Asian musicology and plays the sitar, with his second repertoire album released in 2025. In addition, Dr. Chohan has maintained an annual reading challenge of 100 books every year since 2011.