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Our Work

Guaranteed Income

Introduction

We build pilots, design policy, and conduct research on guaranteed income alongside international partners in government, philanthropy, and academia.

The nature of work is changing, and in an era of widening inequality, legacy social safety net programs are inadequate and inefficient. Our society has the resources to raise the standard of living for all people, and the responsibility to find the most just and efficient means.

Since 2016, we’ve worked to study direct cash transfer programs and basic income initiatives in the US and around the world. We have built out a global network of fellows, advisors, and partners that provides a unique view into the variety of ways cash transfer programs can be structured and implemented. Our in-depth white paper series covers disbursement infrastructure, interactions with existing benefits, and optimal guaranteed income design.

Working with us

If you’re interested in working with us, email jfi@jainfamilyinstitute.org. We primarily partner with policymakers, local government officials (mayors, state representatives and senators, economic development teams within cities, etc), academics, and foundations. We provide research expertise and local insights on all aspects of guaranteed income policy. Our areas of knowledge include pilot and research design, strategy, operationalization, and implementation; assembly of academic advisory boards; consulting on cash transfer legislation, policy, and media; and analysis.

Scholarship

In the literature on guaranteed income, there are many open questions, from details like the optimal size and frequency of the transfer, to policy considerations around eligibility and universality, to the problem of funding, to concerns about detrimental interactions with other benefits, to uncertainty about large-scale societal and economic effects. The social, psychological, and economic impacts of unconditional cash have been difficult to predict and observe. Data is integral to informing and facilitating new policies.

JFI conducts a wide range of interdisciplinary research on guaranteed income and related policies and theories, with a focus on defining and investigating those open questions, through pilot design, program evaluation, macroeconomic modeling, and sovereign wealth fund research.

Pilot Design

JFI designs and implements pilots and conducts research to evaluate their impacts. This includes assembling academic advisory boards and building connections with expert advisors in social science, economics, and policy; developing analysis plans and data collection instruments; writing grants; and, where warranted, taking on the role of primary investigators.

We work with other nonprofits, research institutions, cities and municipalities at every stage to create pilot-for-policy design that suits the community.

We are design and research partners on the Compton Pledge, announced in October, 2020. Led by Compton, California mayor Aja Brown alongside JFI and the Fund for Guaranteed Income, this 800-recipient, two-year initiative is the largest city-led pilot in US history. More details about the program are available in the press release or on the Compton Pledge website.

Elsewhere in the US, we have helped to create research or pilot designs in Stockton, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Hudson, New York; and Newark, New Jersey, among other places. We have worked closely with peer organizations including the Economic Security Project and the Stanford Basic Income Lab.

Policy Evaluation

As interest in guaranteed income and UBI grows, more municipalities around the world are implementing cash transfer policies.

Since 2019, we have collaborated with the city of Maricá, Brazil to evaluate the Citizens' Basic Income policy, one of the largest implementations of guaranteed income in history. Our bilingual website maricabasicincome.com contains comprehensive information about the study, publications, advisory board, news, and more.

With our partners at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), a prominent public research university in neighboring Niterói, Brazil, we’ve designed multiple analyses and evaluations of the program’s impact on Maricá’s citizens, in addition to helping the city find how it can most effectively use its revenue to support a guaranteed income in the long term. We’ve begun a mixed-methods study that combines semi-structured interviews with quantitative analysis. We also work closely with RBRB, the Brazilian Basic Income Network, in support of their work of guaranteed income implementation across Brazil.

Domestically, we’ve provided expert testimony in the New York City Council and for the Alaska State Legislature on their cash transfer programs.

Unifying the Field

To study guaranteed income requires combining research from multiple disciplinary approaches; to take maximum advantage of the information offered by multiple studies, however, requires strategic and systematic thinking about their design. In our high-level research initiatives, we shift from our specific applied projects to take a wider, collaborative view.

First, we are responding to the Covid-19 crisis and the increasing prominence of guaranteed income in a series of papers that lay out what is needed, and what the research shows, for a large-scale policy: the necessary infrastructure, the ideal benefit, the financing, and the political viability. Find that series here.

Second, we are taking on one of the hardest (and most under-discussed) questions in the field–the question of funding–through research; convening experts in sovereign and social wealth funds, finance, and impact investing; and partnerships with municipalities.

Tools and Resources

Toolkit for creating a guaranteed income in your community: Our toolkit, published May 2021 and available here, provides a concrete starting point for anyone interested in supporting a guaranteed income for their community, particularly by launching a guaranteed income pilot. It begins by answering some of the key questions that arise in this undertaking, including what guaranteed income is, why it is gaining attention right now, what the open questions are that a pilot might answer, and what is involved in the creation of a local pilot.
How to frame guaranteed income policy: a review of literature: This review of literature, published May 2021, covers a range of important guaranteed income messaging questions.
Exploring a framework for federal policy: Find our white paper series, “From Idea to Reality: Getting to Guaranteed Income,” here. The series is an in depth examination into how to implement guaranteed income in the U.S.
A discussion seminar on Social Wealth Funds: Find information about our Social Wealth Seminar and all session recordings here. The Social Wealth Seminar is an ongoing virtual forum exploring strategies to manage public assets and resources in service of society, in the United States and across the world.
Find more in our Messaging Guaranteed Income collection.

Partners

Berkeley Opportunity Lab
Brazilian Basic Income Network
Chicago Resilient Families Initiative Task Force
Columbia SIPA
Creatives Rebuild New York
Economic Development Corporation of NYC
Economic Security for Illinois
Economic Security Project
Federal Fluminense University of Nitéroi, Brazil
The Heartland Alliance
John Jay College, CUNY - Dept. of Economics
The Newark Alliance
Newark Community Economic Development Corporation
New York University
North American Basic Income Congress
Office of Alaska State Sen. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
Office of Massachusetts State Sen. Eldridge
Princeton University
Russell Sage Foundation
Springboard to Opportunities
Secretariat of the Solidarity Economy, City of Maricá, Brazil
Stanford Basic Income Lab
Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration and the City of Stockton
United States Basic Income Congress
University of British Columbia

Q&A

What is a guaranteed income? →

Guaranteed income is a type of cash transfer program that provides continuous unconditional and unrestricted cash transfers to individuals or households. This differs from typical social safety net policies by providing a steady, predictable stream of cash to recipients to spend however they see fit without limitations.

Guaranteed income policies and their variants, including basic income, citizen dividends, partial basic income, and universal basic income, have minimal or no eligibility requirements. A guaranteed income may or may not meet basic needs.
What’s the difference between guaranteed income and a cash transfer program? What’s the difference between conditional and unconditional programs? →

Cash transfer programs are a broader category that includes guaranteed income programs. A cash transfer program is any program that offers direct cash assistance to an individual or household.

Cash transfers are called conditional when recipients must perform certain activities such as working or attending school in order to continue receiving benefits. Most existing safety net programs are conditional.

Cash transfers are called unconditional when receiving the cash doesn’t depend upon whether recipients perform any particular activities. A guaranteed income is an unconditional cash transfer. Another specification is that a cash transfer may be a one-off, while guaranteed income is regular.
What is basic income? →

Basic income is a type of cash transfer program that provides cash sufficient to meet basic needs of all individuals or households in a given area. (We want to acknowledge that, as cash transfer policies have grown in prominence, the definitions have shifted, and some do not take the term basic income to require any particular amount) The amount offered may be pegged to area median income or the local poverty rate. Variations on this policy include targeted basic income, which has a selection criteria, a partial basic income that provides cash transfers which are not sufficient to meet basic needs, and Universal Basic Income.
What is Universal Basic Income or UBI? →

A universal basic income is a type of basic income that would be provided to everybody in a community, regardless of socioeconomic or employment status. UBI policies have very few or no eligibility restrictions (e.g., employment, household income, or other similar factors are not considered).
How is guaranteed income different from existing benefit programs in the United States? →

Guaranteed income provides direct cash assistance whereas U.S. social safety net policies such as EITC, Medicaid, and SNAP provide conditional, means-tested, and often in-kind benefits (like food or housing). Additionally, U.S. safety net programs typically target specific populations (disabled; income or assets below a particular value; or the presence of minors in the household), and the benefits typically come with conditions such as employment, enrollment in educational or training programs, or maintaining a criminal record free of convictions for drug-related offenses,. While these programs are valuable, they come with restricted use. For example, a housing voucher cannot pay for education or clothes.
If a guaranteed income program were to be implemented, would recipients have to give up any existing benefits they qualify for? →

Guaranteed income policies are implemented by governments. The impact on benefits therefore depends on the policy choices of local, state, and federal entities. In the case of smaller, privately run pilots, researchers can make arrangements with governmental entities to prevent distributed funds from interfering with other benefits. Protecting people’s benefits is very important to the governments that JFI works with; in each of our exploratory demonstrations and pilots, we have worked with federal, state and local government officials to protect recipients’ benefits during and after the pilots.
What are some arguments in support of creating a guaranteed income policy such as universal basic income? →

The effects of direct cash support have been researched for decades. There is robust evidence that a UBI would reduce poverty and financial insecurity, improve education and health outcomes for kids, and promote housing stability. Many of these effects can also be observed to result from existing cash support programs targeted at parents like the EITC or the Child Tax Credit, both of which significantly reduce the number of families living in poverty. A universal basic income would increase these benefits and extend them to everyone.

A universal basic income is increasingly recognized as a solution to many of the persistent shortcomings of the existing safety net. The work requirements, burdensome application processes, and exclusion of vulnerable groups which are a part of many existing programs ensure that millions do not receive the assistance they need, especially when jobs disappear or crises happen. Both the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic brought attention to many of these shortcomings and necessitated broad cash support legislation to keep people afloat. A UBI would provide a long-term solution that provides financial security both during national crises and during the smaller financial emergencies that millions of Americans face every day.

A UBI does more than ensure that everyone can meet their basic needs; it also empowers them to pursue new opportunities and take risks like moving to a new city, starting a business, searching for a new job, or advancing their education. Financial precarity often holds people back from pursuing riskier opportunities that might leave them better off in the long term. A UBI can unlock this suppressed potential by providing people with breathing room to focus on thriving, not just surviving.
Some people talk about guaranteed income and automation together. What is the relationship between guaranteed income and automation? →

The idea that automation poses a unique threat to everyone’s employment is controversial and ultimately not necessary to make the case for a guaranteed income. It is true that some of the most vocal current advocates of a guaranteed income (for example, Andrew Yang or Elon Musk) argue that we need this policy because of the threat of automation. However, scholars, government officials, and community leaders have advocated for guaranteed income programs for decades and for many different reasons. Generally speaking, guaranteed income provides financial stability to people who would otherwise fall through the cracks during times of significant economic change, including automation, as well as individual challenges and crises.
What are some arguments against creating a guaranteed income policy such as universal basic income? →

One common counterargument is that a universal basic income would be expensive ($3 trillion a year in the US, by one estimate) and that money might be better spent in other ways. A related critique focuses on the value of universal versus targeted transfers: is it better to give some money to many people or a larger amount to a smaller, needier group of people?

Some have argued that individuals may spend benefits on “temptation goods” like drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol or use the money for unnecessary purposes. But see below–this argument has no grounding in research. Another common argument, that guaranteed income leads to people quitting their jobs, is also not supported by evidence.
Does the research show that guaranteed income cash transfer recipients quit their jobs and spend the money on alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs? →

No. This is a common misconception. Numerous studies of cash transfer programs around the world have shown that recipients do not increase their use of alcohol or drugs. While some individuals do work less, the overall effect is modest. Those who do cut back on work also appear to devote more time to socially beneficial activities like job training, education, or taking care of children.

Extensive social science research on cash transfer programs around the world shows that cash transfer recipients spend their benefits responsibly on food, housing, bills, durable goods (e.g. a cow, a car, a refrigerator), and improvement of well-being. In other words, they spend it on taking care of themselves and their families.
How do we study what recipients spend their money on? →

Researchers survey recipients about how they’re using the money — and how the money affects their finances, decision-making, wellbeing, and more — throughout a pilot and afterwards. Social scientists have developed a variety of established surveying techniques to get accurate information from recipients. For some guaranteed income studies, researchers use administrative data, health records, and so on to see how recipients fare.
Does UBI have broader effects on income distribution or inflation? →

Research on the cost-effectiveness and “distributional” implications of guaranteed income programs is still in its infancy, but with our macroeconomic modelling work, JFI will provide answers to some of the questions that underlie this debate.

JFI is also exploring the question of inflation using macroeconomic models and simulations, as well as in our work on the large-scale policy implemented in Maricá, Brazil. This work is parallel to our pilot efforts and is informed, in part, by findings from them.

Early evidence from Kenya, Mexico, and our own macroeconomic modeling research focused on NYC suggests that inflation effects are unsubstantiated.
Are any guaranteed income pilots or policies currently operating in the US, and how much money do participants receive? →
Yes, there are several pilots and policies currently running or in development. Among pilots, the size of the transfers vary, but the amount is meant to make a substantive difference in citizens’ lives. Recent pilots include:
- Compton Pledge (Compton, CA) - $300-600 per month on a quarterly or bi-monthly disbursement schedule
- Stockton SEED (Stockton, CA) - $500/month
- Magnolia Mothers Trust (Jackson, MS) - $1000/month
- People’s Prosperity (St. Paul, MN) - $500 per month
The oldest active guaranteed income policy in the US is the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, which was implemented in 1976 and distributes public earnings from state oil revenue in the form of a yearly lump sum payment to all Alaska residents that have lived within the state for a full calendar year and intend to remain Alaska residents indefinitely. Residents receive $1500-$2500 per year. The Dividend has been and continues to be the subject of research that can provide insights into the effects of cash transfers more generally.

Some Native American tribes also distribute guaranteed incomes to their members. For example, The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have provided a guaranteed income to members since 1996, drawing from casino revenue.
How are these pilots being funded (both the disbursement and research)? →

Almost all guaranteed income pilots currently underway in the U.S. have been privately funded with philanthropic dollars and/or institutional grants. In one case, the city of St. Paul, Minnesota was able to allocate local funds from the CARES Act to a local guaranteed income pilot. The city of Los Angeles announced a pilot in spring 2021 that uses American Rescue Plan stimulus funds. San Francisco’s Abundant Birth pilot and Chelsea, MA also used government funding.
How would a policy for an entire city, state, or country be funded? →

A universal guaranteed income policy at the municipal, state, or federal level can potentially be funded through a VAT tax, a carbon tax, a wealth tax, an increase in progressive income tax, a budget reallocation, or dividend from some kind of fund, like natural resources, casino revenue, some kind of sovereign or social wealth fund. This is an area of ongoing research. Permanent funding for a city-level basic income is unusual, but in Maricá, Brazil, where we’re conducting research, the 42,000-recipient basic income is funded by oil revenues.
Why conduct more pilots? →
JFI believes that guaranteed income programs are supported by extensive evidence for the effectiveness of direct cash support. However, we believe that there is still a lot to learn about the individual, community, and large-scale effects of these policies and about how best to implement them at scale. While we know a fair amount about how a guaranteed income works, well-designed pilots can help us learn more about what an optimal or feasible guaranteed income policy would look like in different environments. JFI pilots serve these purposes by
- Allowing policymakers to incorporate evidence into their decision-making
- Building out disbursement systems that would be used in a full-scale policy
- Testing logistics and other tools critical to implementation
- Inviting citizens to have an impact on policies that will affect them
- Evaluating long-term effects on individuals and the broader economy
On the academic side, we can study important effects and research questions of a large regular cash transfer that have not been deeply studied. These include changes in time use, impacts on labor and leisure, time and investment in child-care and job training, changes in community engagement, and qualitative understandings of lived experience and well-being.
What's the history of guaranteed income? →

Although the conversation around UBI is having a recent revival, the concept is perennial, with early references to a guaranteed minimum income dating as far back as the sixteenth century. In Utopia, Thomas More proposed that providing “everyone with some means of livelihood” would be a more effective deterrence for theft than the death sentence.

The sentiment that the state should guarantee citizens a secure subsistence has been echoed in the writings of Montesquieu, Thomas Paine, Charles Fourier, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, Milton Friedman, and Martin Luther King, among others, though the underlying motivations and details of the proposals vary widely. Whereas Paine argued for a basic income on the premise of common ownership of the earth, others focused on the decoupling of work and income, equality of opportunity, redistribution of wealth, freedom (from state paternalism), or simplification of the welfare state.

For more, see this overview from basicincome.org.
Does the Jain Family Institute advocate a full-scale guaranteed income policy? →

In light of extensive research that clearly supports the benefits of unconditional cash transfers as a means of reducing poverty and improving well-being, JFI supports the creation of more robust unconditional cash transfer policies as a part of the safety net. At the same time, there are many open questions around the optimal form that a guaranteed income might take. JFI supports efforts to implement guaranteed income policy without being committed to any one particular design. JFI’s work implicitly endorses policies that are supported by robust evidence, including our own research: a range of cash and safety net policies fall under this purview.
Does the Jain Family Institute work with any guaranteed income projects that are currently underway? →

We are researchers on one of the world’s largest guaranteed income policies, the Citizens’ Basic Income in Maricá, Brazil. We are also researchers for the Compton Pledge, one of the largest municipal guaranteed income pilots in the United States. JFI staff serve as advisors on SEED, the Stockton guaranteed income pilot, and as members of Newark, New Jersey’s Guaranteed Income Task Force. We are also advising on or developing several pilots conducted by states, cities, and nonprofits that are not yet public.
What else does the Jain Family Institute do on guaranteed income? →

In addition to pilots, JFI is working on several other projects to advance the field. Our ongoing whitepaper series From Idea to Reality: Getting to Guaranteed Income includes “Building a Helicopter: Pathways for Targeting & Distributing a US Guaranteed Income” and “Reweaving the Safety Net: The Best Fit for Guaranteed Income” with two more papers forthcoming. We have also released a toolkit which provides a practical starting point for anyone interested in supporting a guaranteed income in their community, including the creation of a pilot.

We are also supporting work to model the effects of guaranteed income policies at a metropolitan or national level to understand how such policies would affect employment, GDP and housing markets and how these effects would vary according to financing approach (e.g., paid for through income taxes, sales taxes, carbon taxes, etc.). See, for example, this JFI-supported macromodel of a UBI in New York City, released in March 2021.
Can I be a guaranteed income recipient in a UBI pilot? →

The work we do on pilots and demonstrations is experimental and randomized, so no one can currently opt into a pilot. (Randomization is a key aspect of social science experimental research.) Studies are randomized to allow unbiased collection of data.
How can I get involved in a pilot/demonstration? →
Here are a few different ways you can get involved in a JFI pilot:

Here are a few different ways you can get involved in a JFI pilot:
- If you’re interested in being a JFI researcher, contact us at jfi@jainfamilyinstitute.org.
- If you want to build a pilot, contact us at jfi@jainfamilyinstitute.org and check out our toolkit.
- If you have a press inquiry about JFI, contact the JFI communications team at communications@jainfamilyinstitute.org.

our-work / single.html

Guaranteed Income

Introduction

Working with us

Scholarship

Pilot Design

Policy Evaluation

Unifying the Field

Tools and Resources

Partners

Q&A

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