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

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.

Critically discusses how to run and report the results of UBI experiments Provides a concise, easy-to-read overview of UBI experiments that is accessible to policymakers, researchers, reporters and citizens Shows how crucial it is for experiments to understand the public discussion of UBI and suggests how to present experimental findings in a way that avoids past problems with spin and sensationalism

Auteur
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.

Contenu
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Universal Basic Income and its More Testable Sibling, the Negative Income Tax.- Chapter 3. Available Testing Techniques.- Chapter 4: Testing Difficulties.- Chapter 5: The Practical Impossibility of Testing UBI.- Chapter 6: BIG Experiments of the 1970s and the Public Reaction to Them.- Chapter 7. New Experimental Findings 2009-2013.- Chapter 8. Current Experiments.- Chapter 9. Why are UBI Trials Happening Now? The Political Process That Brought About UBI Experiments in the 20-Teens.- Chapter 10. The Vulnerability of Experimental Findings to Misunderstanding, Misuse, Spin, and the Streetlight Effect.- Chapter 11. Why UBI Experiments Cannot Resolve Much of the Public Disagreement About UBI.- Chapter 12. The Bottom Line.- Chapter 13. Identifying Important Empirical Claims in the UBI Debate.- Chapter 14. Claims That Don't Need a Test.- Chapter 15. Claims That Can't be Tested with Available Techniques.- Chapter 16.Claims That can be Tested but Only Partially, Indirectly, or Inconclusively.- Chapter 17. From the Dream Test to Good Tests Within Feasible Budgets.- Chapter 18. Why Have an Experiment at all?.- Chapter 19. Overcoming Spin, Sensationalism Misunderstanding, and the Streetlight Effect.