What does early data tell us about how recipients of universal basic income spend their money?
Infographics released by GiveDirectly last week provide early insights from the first true test of universal basic income; plus, watch a panel discussion on UBI moderated by Devex.
Early insights from a groundbreaking test of universal basic income, which the nonprofit organization GiveDirectly is conducting in Kenya, might offer answers to some of the key questions about how this policy could work.
Many of the criticisms of UBI — where money is distributed universally in a community, with no strings attached as to how it is spent — revolve around concerns that recipients will waste the money away, or will not use their time or cash productively. A recent story on the GiveDirectly project in the New York Times was titled “The Future of Not Working,” even though the reporter describes how recipients made entrepreneurial investments…
