What is it about?
One way to increase economic security is simply to provide individuals with guaranteed basic income. Our study analyzed the results of a half century of basic income pilot programs undertaken in 16 countries and found that the benefit did not reduce recipients' motivation to work, as measured by average hours of work per week or labor participation rates.
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Why is it important?
Guaranteed basic income is gaining interest as a way to protect millions of workers worldwide whose jobs and wages are threatened by new technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence, One key impediment to supporting this approach is the belief that it will reduce or destroy the motivation to work among those who receive the benefit. Others disagree. They say the benefit is too modest to be a significant work disincentive and that people work for important psychological and social reasons such as identity, purpose, and social integration as well as to earn money and, as a result, they would continue to work even if they received basic income. Out work tested these competing views.
Perspectives
Basic income can be viewed narrowly as a strategy to reduce the economic insecurity of workers who are being disrupted by rapid technological changes in the post-industrial world. It can also be viewed more broadly as the next frontier in human rights. Similar to the heath care debate, where one can ask: Is health insurance and proper health care a basic human right or a responsibility?, we can also ask if having sufficient income to survive is right for all human beings. Beyond basic subsistence, people can compete to advance their material conditions; but all individuals, as human beings, have a right to subsistence, regardless.
Richard Gilbert
Loyola Marymount University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Would a Basic Income Guarantee Reduce the Motivation to Work? An Analysis of Labor Responses in 16 Trial Programs, Basic Income Studies, November 2018, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/bis-2018-0011.
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