A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens

by Karl Widerquist

At least six different Universal Basic Income (UBI) experiments are underway or planned right now in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Kenya. Several more countries are considering conducting experiments. Yet, there seems to be more interest simply in having UBI experiments than in exactly what we want to learn from them. Although experiments can produce a lot of relevant data about UBI, they are crucially limited in their ability to enlighten our understanding of the big questions that bear on the discussion of whether to implement UBI as a national or regional policy. And, past experience shows that results of UBI experiments are particularly vulnerable misunderstanding, sensationalism, and spin. This book examines the difficulties of conducting a UBI experiment and reporting the results in ways that successfully improve public understanding of the probable effects of a national UBI. The book makes recommendations how researchers, reporters, citizens, and policymakers can avoid these problems and get the most out of UBI experiments.

167 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 29, 2018

About the author

Karl Widerquist is a Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar. He specializes in distributive justice: the ethics of who has what. He is an interdisciplinary scholar who holds two doctorates, one in Normative Political Theory (Oxford University 2006) and one in Economics (the City University of New York 1996). His writing and research cross the disciplines of philosophy, politics, economics, anthropology, and the philosophy of social science. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and eleven books including Universal Basic Income: Essential Knowledge, the Problem of Property, the Prehistory of Private Property, A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments; Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy; and Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom as the Power to Say No. Much of his writing is about Universal Basic Income. He was a founding editor of the journal Basic Income Studies, cofounder of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network, and cochair of the Basic Income Earth Network. The Atlantic Monthly called him “a leader of the worldwide Basic Income movement.”
Website: www.widerquist.com
Twitter: @KarlWiderquist
Email: Karl@widerquist.com

Reviews

[Richard]

A pretty wonky discussion.of basic income experiments and their roll in the broader political discussion of the implementation of the UBI as policy. Wildequist is certainly one of the leaders of basic income research and advocacy and after reading this short book it is clear that he does not believe that a UBI will happen by virtue of incontrovertible experimental facts.

Experiments are happening around the world nevertheless and so it makes sense nonetheless to understand the fact that any results will provide at best some modest insight into the question of whether or not a basic income is a policy that would work and should be adopted.

As I was finishing up this book it occurred to me that there might be a lot to be learned about how to put a UBI into effect by understanding the history of national pensions/social security. How were these social policies conceived? How did supporters manage to convince enough stakeholders to embrace it? What if anything could UBI advocates learn from these historical antecedents?