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Updated by UBI Advocates on Aug 18, 2020
Headline for UBI Research Links - UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME EVIDENCE
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UBI Research Links - UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME EVIDENCE

Here will be links to important documents, research, or images related to UBI. Additional research: http://basicincome.org/research/

New to UBI? READ THIS: Basic Income 101: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-we-should-all-have-a-basic-income OR read these: https://medium.com/@2noame/latest


Extremely skeptical of UBI even after reading the scientific evidence? Read the common misconceptions here: http://list.ly/list/1S4y-common-ubi-misconceptions


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UBI Pilot Programs around the world.

UBI Pilot Programs around the world.

Explore this research list as a website at http://ubi.earth/explore
View more map info at http://ubi.earth/map

Share this research list using the following link: ubi.earth/research

UBI Study in India

Study PDF: http://www.unicef.in/Uploads/Publications/Resources/pub_doc83.pdf

"Women’s empowerment was one of the more important outcomes of this experiment"

Guy Standing: http://isa-global-dialogue.net/indias-great-experiment-the-transformative-potential-of-basic-income-grants/
"Contrary to the skeptics, the grants led to more labor and work (figure 2)."

"The positive effect on production and growth means that the elasticity of supply would offset inflationary pressure"

"Those with basic income were more likely to reduce debt and less likely to go into greater debt."

Further reading: http://mondediplo.com/2013/05/04income

BIG Pilot Project - Assessment Report NAMIBIA

Study PDF: http://bignam.org/Publications/BIG_Assessment_report_08b.pdf

"Overall crime rates – as reported to the local police station – fell by 42% while stock theft fell by 43% and other theft by nearly 20%."

"Before the pilot project started, opponents said that if you give people money, and especially poor people, they will sit down and become lazy. [...] The results of the research presented here, refute this claim." - "I am convinced that the BIG is not only able to eradicate destitution, hunger and malnutrition, but that it lays a strong foundation for economic empowerment, responsibility and ownership taking. The BIG, by restoring the human dignity of people, frees people to become active and proud members of this society."

UBI Studies "Quoted Findings" Video

Video: http://animoto.com/s/sFvehGyGYWG30Idr860bNA

Video quoting some of the findings from multiple Basic Income and cash-transfer studies around the world: http://list.ly/list/1RdG-ubi-research-links-universal-basic-income-evidence

Evidence of cash transfers around the world.

PDF Document: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/10748.pdf

"165 studies, covering 56 programs"

Overall, the evidence confirms that cash transfers can be a powerful policy instrument and highlights the range of potential benefits for beneficiaries. By retrieving, assessing and synthesising the literature on cash transfers over the past 15 years, this review contributes to the growing evidence based on the impacts of cash transfers and provides additional insights into how they work.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend

Document: http://www.iser.uaa.alaska.edu/Publications/bien_xiii_ak_pfd_lessons.pdf

"businesses compete for a share of the dividend dollars through advertising campaigns, sales, and other types of special offers."

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend shows how local business and thus the economy benefits from the unconditional incomes, yet this is only half of the story as business owners themselves also receive dividends.

Also mentioned: "This has allowed the state to eliminate most taxes except those on petroleum, to expand public services..." Consider the benefits that non-business organizations and public-services can and likely do take advantage of. "Although the dividend provides much needed cash to the residents of these villages, it also enables some to remain who would otherwise move to places where jobs are more readily available and public services less expensive."

"demand for public as well as non-profit programs providing services for lower-income individuals and families has also been growing rapidly."

"Alaska has experienced lower levels of inflation compared to the U.S. average since the inception of the program."

http://nation.time.com/2014/02/13/alaska-happiest-state/

"Alaska is consistently among the most equal of all US states, with the lowest rates of poverty, and the highest Well-Being Index scores."
Further reading: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/extreme-wealth-inequality-alaska-model

Highlights from Multiple Studies - via Scott Santens on Twitter

#Basicincome advocate with a basic income via @Patreon; Writer: @HuffPost, @wef, @TechCrunch, @Voxdotcom, @BostonGlobe, @Politico, @Futurism; /r/BasicIncome mod

"Universal Basic Income Will Likely Increase Social Cohesion" Scott Santens

"a stronger community spirit developed over the period of the first year of the BIG" — "marked increase in economic activity, improvements in nutrition and overall health, improved school attendance and performance, increased savings, lowered debts, and improvements in housing among others." —"cash recipients share part of the cash transfer with other community members" — " preferences for social contact, empathy, and gregariousness"

Empirical Results and Data: The Behavioral Effects of U.S. Unconditional Cash Transfer Programs

Document: https://www.scribd.com/document/347464787/No-Strings-Attached-The-Behavioral-Effects-of-U-S-Unconditional-Cash-Transfer-Programs#download&from_embed

None of the below are universal, but they all had variations in either non-universality or other aspects, however, they are good steps toward universal, and they were: Unconditional Cash Transfers.

Selected quotes from findings:
"The evidence does not suggest an average worker will drop out of the labor force when provided with unconditional cash, even when the transfer is large."
"showed positive impacts on the quality of nutrition"
"School attendance, grades, and test scores for the children of negative income tax recipients were typically higher than the control population, especially for younger and poorer children."
"recipients experienced an 8.5 percent decrease in hospitalizations compared to the control group, especially for mental health, accidents, and injuries"
"dividend payments improved mental health among Native American recipients relative to non-Native participants in a longitudinal study." "were significantly less likely to experience alcohol or cannabis use or dependence"
"Self-reported criminalized activity decreased among recipients of the EBC casino dividend, particularly for minor crimes and drug-dealing activities. "with a 22 percent reduction for 16- and 17-year-olds"
Children also reported more positive interactions with parents." "payments also caused a reduction in drug-dealing activities among youths."
"This demand stimulation effect would contribute to increasing employment and wages."
"parents were more likely to be aware of their children’s whereabouts and activities"
"an improvement in parenting likely contributed to improved child outcomes among families receiving the payments"
"The positive effect of the payments on psychiatric disorders in young adulthood was larger for children who were younger when the payments started."
"find that income has a pervasive positive effect on health, with important reductions in smoking, obesity, and anxiety. "

Awareness and support for basic income are linked

The simple act of sharing the idea of Unconditional Universal Basic Income is likely enough to win support.

http://media-cdn.list.ly/production/344550/2074169/item2074169_600px.jpeg?ver=9607282813

Comparing Brazil and India - Overall Poverty Reduction

Basic Income "decreases inequalities and improves social inclusion"

The evidence from Lebanon

PDF Document: https://www.aub.edu.lb/ifi/publications/Documents/policy_memos/2015-2016/20160225_impact_cash_assistance.pdf

"When people receive cash grants they invest the money or spend it on such basic items as food and better shelter."

"Cash grants do not cause inflation and do produce significant benefits for local economies. The research found that there are no inflationary impacts from cash distributions."

Social acceptability and perceived impact of a community-led cash transfer programme in Zimbabwe

PDF: http://goo.gl/loM9aD (shortened due to length)

"the community has become more unified, with everyone interacting well with each other across social strata. “It brought more social cohesion because some people used to suffer on their own. They did not socialize with other people because they [didn't have a foundational income floor] but with the coming of the programme everyone is working together, people are now interacting with everyone.” Florence, female community member"

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Productivity and Compensation Disconnect since 1970

Productivity and Compensation Disconnect since 1970

There has been a disconnect in wages and productivity since 1970. Prof. Emeritus of Economics, MIT, draws a portrait of the new [US] reality—"profoundly disturbing" https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-is-regressing-into-a-developing-nation-for-most-people
via https://twitter.com/UBIsticker/status/857276302713208832

sinking lid aka austerity-measures: "A policy of lowering staff numbers by not replacing workers who resign or retire, typically in public services"

Scott Santens: "Automation is paradoxically causing us to work more, not less, since 1985, out of survival necessity" "Does that make any sense? For the tools we create to lessen our workload, to instead increase it? And to then give all the gains to the 1%?" https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7yH8iBU8AAqC06.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7yG6meVUAEifRb.jpg:large

It's not just automation - which seems to be amplifying these problems. One other possible explanation or contribution to the decoupling of wages from productivity since 1970: http://list.ly/i/2139244
Paper: http://economics.csusb.edu/facultyStaff/nilsson/personal/Professional/Nixon.pdf

Indirect: "Austerity has not worked to lower government debt burdens. It has only made them worse."
The problem with Neoliberalism: http://christienken.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Neoliberalism_Tienken_2013.pdf

Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods A Review of Global Evidence - World Bank

PDF Document: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/617631468001808739/pdf/WPS6886.pdf

"on average, there is no increase in the consumption of temptation goods."

"There is clear evidence that transfers are not consistently used for alcohol or tobacco in any of these environments."

"strong evidence that concerns that transfers will be used on alcohol and tobacco are unfounded."

Eastern Cherokee Indian Land Trust

"Eastern Cherokee Indian Land Trust has resulted in fewer behavioral and emotional problems among the community's children, relative to neighboring communities. In adulthood, recipients had less depression, anxiety, and alcohol dependence." via http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/overwhelming-evidence-that-a-guaranteed-income-will-work

Family Rewards was an innovative approach to poverty reduction in the United States that was modeled on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs.
The cash transfers, though not considered proper UBI by a long way, produced "positive benefits for participating families, taxpayers, and society as a whole. First study: http://www.mdrc.org/news/press-release/new-findings-show-new-york-city’s-conditional-cash-transfer-initiative-reduced

Second study (linked) "These results were driven primarily by the conditional cash transfer value and a positive impact on the average self-rated health status. The program had a positive net present value for participating families " ... "the present value of benefits per family was less than the present value of program costs per family".... "...the benefits less the program costs per family was positive 10.9 percent of the time".... [note: The studies suggest that if the cash payments where higher, and if the costs and ease of administering payments was low] "the potential value of impacts on targeted outcomes is high."

Some findings: Reduced Poverty and Hardship, Boosted Graduation for Some Better-Prepared High School Students, Reduced current poverty and material hardship, including hunger and some housing-related hardships, Helped parents increase savings and reduce reliance on families and friends for cash loans, substantially increased graduation rates and other outcomes for students who entered high school as proficient readers." leading some students "to devote more attention to academic pursuits." Substantially increased families’ receipt of preventive dental care. Increased the likelihood of self-reported full-time employment.

It is important to note that this is NOT UBI. It is both conditional & targeted and not necessarily foundational amounts, meaning: NOT UBI, but still very important in terms of basic income.

PDF Document: http://ubi.earth/studies/manitoba.pdf

We found no evidence that fertility increased among Dauphin subjects relative to the comparison group. In fact, there is weak evidence of delayed childbirth among the youngest cohort of Dauphin mothers. — however "improved nutrition and access to prenatal care may lead to healthier newborns" "residents benefited from increased income security" residents were "offered stability and predictability; families knew they could count on at least some support, no matter what happened to agricultural prices or the weather. They knew that sudden illness, disability or unpredictable economic events would not be financially devastating."

Consumption of Fresh Vegetables jumped 888%

"What happened was nothing less than heart-warming." an "absolute expansion in the consumption of more nutritious items" "fresh vegatables up 888 percent)"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4e_8bkVcAAPHvF.jpg

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Macau has had a 'Basic Income' since 2008, and continues through 2017

Macau has had a 'Basic Income' since 2008, and continues through 2017

It was created to improve the livelihoods of individuals, boost the growth of small businesses, increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and for citizens to share the benefits of economic growth overall.

http://ubi.earth/macau.jpg