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

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 1-14

3. Universal Basic Income and Its More Testable Sibling, the Negative Income Tax

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 15-18

4. Available Testing Techniques

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 19-25

5. Testing Difficulties

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 27-35

6. The Practical Impossibility of Testing UBI

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 37-42

7. BIG Experiments of the 1970s and the Public Reaction to Them

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 43-55

8. New Experimental Findings 2008–2013

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 57-59

9. Current, Planned, and Proposed Experiments, 2014–Present

   • Karl Widerquist

   Pages 61-70

10. The Political Economy of the Decision to Have a UBI Experiment

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 71-75

11. The Vulnerability of Experimental Findings to Misunderstanding, Misuse, Spin, and the Streetlight Effect

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 77-85

12. Why UBI Experiments Cannot Resolve Much of the Public Disagreement About UBI

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 87-91

13. The Bottom Line

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 93-98

14. Identifying Important Empirical Claims in the UBI Debate

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 99-104

15. Claims That Don’t Need a Test

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 105-108

16. Claims That Can’t Be Tested with Available Techniques

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 109-114

17. Claims That Can Be Tested but Only Partially, Indirectly, or Inconclusively

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 115-129

18. From the Dream Test to Good Tests Within Feasible Budgets

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 131-139

19. Why Have an Experiment at All?

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 141-144

20. Overcoming Spin, Sensationalism, Misunderstanding, and the Streetlight Effect

    • Karl Widerquist

    Pages 145-149

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.

• basic income guarantee
• big
• universal basic income
• ubi
• public policy
• social policy
• welfare
• experiments
• Negative Income Tax

“Widerquist’s book … arguments about the usefulness of experiments and about how they should be carried out, but it will be essential reading for anyone planning an experiment. It is an important contribution to the Citizen’s Basic Income literature.” (Citizen’s Income newsletter, Issue 2, 2019)

• Georgetown University in Qatar, Doha, Qatar

  Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist is Associate Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is an internationally recognized expert not only on Basic Income, which he has written about as an economist, philosopher, political theorist, and policy analyst, but also on Basic Income experiments. He has published several academic and non-academic articles on Basic Income experiments over the last 15 years and is the editor of the book series Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee (Palgrave Macmillan). He was a founding editor of the journal Basic Income Studies and co-chair of BIEN for seven years.

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