A guaranteed income experiment
Tyler Cowan writes on the findings, which are:
- 1,000 low-income individuals were randomized into receiving $1,000 per month unconditionally for three years
- A control group of 2,000 participants receiving $50/ month
- The transfer caused total individual income to fall by about $1,500/year relative to the control group, excluding the transfers.
- The program resulted in a 2.0 percentage point decrease in labor market participation for participants and a 1.3-1.4 hour per week reduction in labor hours, with participants’ partners reducing their hours worked by a comparable amount.
- The transfer generated the largest increases in time spent on leisure, as well as smaller increases in time spent in other activities such as transportation and finances.
- We find no impact on quality of employment, and our confidence intervals can rule out even small improvements.
- No significant effects on investments in human capital
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