This book is the first full-length treatment of the desirability and feasibility of implementing a citizen’s income (also known as a basic income). It tests for two different kinds of financial feasibility as well as for psychological, behavioral, administrative, and political viability, and then assesses how a citizen’s income might find its way through the policy process from proposal to implementation. Drawing on a wide variety of sources of evidence from around the world, this new book from the director of the Citizen’s Income Trust, UK, provides an essential foundation for policy and implementation debates. Governments, think tanks, economists, and public servants will find this thorough encompassing book indispensable to their consideration of the economic and social advantages and practicalities of a basic income.

This discerning book provides a comprehensive analysis of the nationwide randomised Finnish basic income experiment 2017 to 2018, from planning and implementation through to the end results. It presents the background of the social policy system in which the experiment was implemented and details the narratives of the planning process alongside its constraints, as well as a final evaluation of the results.

This Palgrave Pivot argues that basic income at a decent level is, in fact, affordable. The contributors approach the topic from the perspectives of three different countries—Canada, Switzerland, and Australia—to overcome objections that a universal program to keep all citizens above the poverty line would be too expensive to implement. They assess the complex array of revenue sources that can make universal basic income feasible, from the underestimated value of public program redundancies to new and so far unaccounted publicly owned assets.

Debate on the desirability, feasibility and implementation of a Citizen’s Basic Income – an unconditional, nonwithdrawable and regular income for every individual – is increasingly widespread among academics, policymakers, and the general public. There are now numerous introductory books on the subject, and others on particular aspects of it. This book provides something new: It studies the Citizen’s Basic Income proposal from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives: the economics of Citizen’s Basic Income, the sociology of Citizen’s Basic Income, the politics of Citizen’s Basic Income, and so on. Each chapter discusses the academic discipline, and relevant aspects of the debate, and asks how the discipline enhances our understanding, and how the Citizen’s Basic Income debate might contribute to the academic discipline.

Universal basic income (UBI) is emerging as one of the most hotly debated issues in development and social protection policy. But what are the features of UBI? What is it meant to achieve? How do we know, and what don’t we know, about its performance? What does it take to implement it in practice? Drawing from global evidence, literature, and survey data, this volume provides a framework to elucidate issues and trade-offs in UBI with a view to help inform choices around its appropriateness and feasibility in different contexts. Specifically, the book examines how UBI differs from or complements other social assistance programs in terms of objectives, coverage, incidence, adequacy, incentives, effects on poverty and inequality, financing, political economy, and implementation. It also reviews past and current country experiences, surveys the full range of existing policy proposals, provides original results from micro†“tax benefit simulations, and sets out a range of considerations around the analytics and practice of UBI.

In the five years since Money for Everyone was published the idea of a Citizen’s Basic Income has rocketed in interest to an idea whose time has come. In moving the debate on from the desirability of a basic income this fully updated and revised edition now includes comprehensive discussions on feasibility and implementation. Using the consultation undertaken by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales as a basis, Torry examines a number of implementation methods for Citizen’s Basic Income and considers the cost implications. Including real-life examples from the UK, and data from case studies and pilots in Alaska, Namibia, India, Iran and elsewhere, this is the essential research-based introduction to the Citizen’s Basic Income.

“Powerful as well as highly engaging—a brilliant book.” —Amartya Sen A Times Higher Education Book of the Week It may sound crazy to pay people whether or not they’re working or even looking for work. But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to everyone, rich or poor, active or inactive, has long been advocated by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith. Now, with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in the world. Basic Income presents the most acute and fullest defense of this radical idea, and makes the case that it is our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity and social exclusion. “They have set forth, clearly and comprehensively, what is probably the best case to be made today for this form of economic and social policy.” —Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Review of Books “A rigorous analysis of the many arguments for and against a universal basic income, offering a road map for future researchers.” —Wall Street Journal “What Van Parijs and Vanderborght bring to this topic is a deep understanding, an enduring passion and a disarming optimism.” —Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post