PANEL 2 - The Potential Impacts of Unconditional Basic Income, and what Experiments can tell us
Convenors: Catarina Neves, Hugo Rajão e Thiago Souza
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected] and [email protected].
The participants in this panel will include Philippe Van Parijs, Guy Standing, Karl Widerquist and Jamie Cooke.
Recent years have witnessed what looks like an increase in the strength of the ‘third wave’ of Basic Income support (Karl Widerquist, 'Basic Income's Third Wave, 2017 in Open Democracy). Since the pilot in Namibia in 2007-2009 and the subsequent pilots in India, a surge in discussions, academic work and unconditional cash grants experiments across the globe have fueled the debate both in favor and against the idea of an Unconditional Basic Income (hereinafter UBI).
The Covid19 pandemic seems to also have contributed to this wave, leapfrogging the global discussion on the UBI. The pandemic has shown some of the main problems in social assistance mechanisms throughout the world. Several lock-downs and the slowdown of economic activity increased poverty and unemployment rates and highlighted existing vulnerabilities in the support provided to precariat workers, to women and to the so-called ‘working poor’ (Guy Standing, 'How Lockdowns make the case for a basic income, 2020 in The Economist). This led to a collective claim for the implementation of a UBI, as a universal and obligations-free cash grant that could provide an efficient safety net for everyone.
The increasing interest on UBI has resulted in some of the most exciting developments in the discussion for many years, namely the current movement in the US - the Mayors for Guaranteed Income - which started with Mayor Tubbs’ SEED Project in Stockton, the discussion and proposal for a nation-wide youth basic income in South Korea or the recent support for UBI from Scotland’s prime minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Despite increased discussion, there are still many unanswered questions about the potential impacts of a UBI if implemented at a national level, namely in labor market participation, social inclusion or in how it can be a mechanism to help mitigate the current climate crisis and contribute to an ecological transition. There is a growing trend for experimentation grounded on the need to provide answers to some of these questions, but it is arguable whether UBI experiments might tell us all we need to know about the potential impacts of UBI. Moreover, there is not a strong consensus around what experiments could help us understand such impacts, not whether experimentation is the best way forward in the global discussion and movement in favor of UBI.
This panel invites contributors to answer questions related to experimentation with UBI, and its potential impacts: What, if any, can experiments tell us about the potential impacts of UBI if implemented at a nation-wide level? What type of experiments should we consider when discussing the impacts of UBI: pilots, guaranteed income experiments, cash grants in general, or none? What might be the potential ethical downsides of engaging with social experiments? We are also particularly interested in contributions aiming at discussing the impacts of UBI in the context of a green economy and/or ecological transition and whether experiments are adequate tools to help us answer some of our doubts on this matter.
Also, this panel is part of a broader project run by CEPS about Unconditional Basic Income Experiments. The project, led by Roberto Merrill, includes a broad list of associate researchers from all over the world. Several workshops have been organized focusing on whether UBI experiments are necessary for implementing a UBI, or on the potential resources necessary to fund a UBI, to name a few. Through the project, a Special Issue co-edited by Roberto Merrill and Catarina Neves on UBI experiments was also published on Basic Income Studies, and a book on UBI experiments will be published by Palgrave Macmillan. You can have a look at the project’s web page in order to get an idea of the main and upcoming events of the project, and the topics that have been discussed.
If you want to apply, please submit an abstract, of 400-500 words along with five keywords, of your paper prepared for peer review by 17 April 2022. We will respond by 28 April 2022. All proposals must be submitted online through our website using the Abstract submission Form (please, click “Submit Abstract” and fill the form).