Tuesday, October 21, 2025
  • Login
CEO North America
  • Home
  • News
    • Business
    • Entrepreneur
    • Industry
    • Innovation
    • Management & Leadership
  • CEO Interviews
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • Environment
  • CEO Life
    • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Business
    • Entrepreneur
    • Industry
    • Innovation
    • Management & Leadership
  • CEO Interviews
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • Environment
  • CEO Life
    • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
CEO North America
No Result
View All Result

CEO North America > Opinion > What we know and what we don’t know about universal basic income

What we know and what we don’t know about universal basic income

in Opinion
What we know and what we don’t know about universal basic income
Share on LinkedinShare on WhatsApp

What we know and what we don’t know about universal basic income

The COVID-19 pandemic came with a surge of interest in universal basic income (UBI). The crisis moved UBI from the policy fringe, where it has long been, closer to the mainstream.

Multiple countries employed UBI – or less ambitious variations in the form of temporary basic income (TBI) or minimum subsistence income (MSI) as a crisis measure to cushion the immediate social and economic effects of the pandemic. Before COVID-19, automation and the replacement of jobs made many think of UBI as the way to distribute more fairly the risks and benefits of the technological shifts.

Wales is rolling out a UBI trial in a 2-year scheme that will include 5000 people. It joins a growing group of countries engaging with UBI, from Canada to Finland, Germany to India, Kenya and the United States, as either a standing policy tool or an emergency response.

The debate on UBI is, however, often polarized and rooted in selective data. Blind spots exist on all sides. To allow for informed policy, an open conversation needs to be had on what we actually know and what we are missing on UBI.

What we know

First, the good news.

Trials show how UBI performs in both stable and volatile settings. It has been piloted before and during the pandemic. Many schemes will run through the crisis and end in post-COVID set-ups. Put together, trials serve in two respects.

First, to guide the debates on UBI as a longer-term policy. Secondly, to inform the deployment of UBI as an emergency response in humanitarian, development, and various crisis contexts. COVID-19 is one of many mega-crises to come. Think of the looming social and economic turmoil associated with climate change. Understanding how cash and UBI may (or may not) alleviate these shocks is critical in preparing response options.

UBI is not a “rich country” issue, despite what is often assumed. It has been implemented both in the Global North (e.g., Canada, Finland, Germany, Spain, the US) and in the Global South (e.g., Kenya, India, Mongolia, Namibia). Experts say that developing countries are not at a disadvantage in carrying the fiscal load of UBI or in running the schemes.

Financing is front-and-centre in any talk on sustained UBI. And it should stay there. Data is emerging on the feasibility and sustainability of various financing modalities. These include more traditional sources (e.g., oil and natural resource-derived funding, reallocation of existing funds), innovative ways (e.g., carbon price-and-dividend, data-driven funding, dividends from marketing socially-owned data), and mixed options.

Key lessons are also available on distributive performance of UBI and ways of calibrating the progressive/regressive character of schemes through their financing mechanisms. These are to be listened to if the intention is to go beyond individual trials towards longer-term or to-scale UBI. They also matter greatly when it comes to public buy-in and political acceptability of UBI.

Evaluations of UBI are available and they contain a wealth of data. But the contextual differences and the particular setup of the trials are often under-analysed in the debates on the effectiveness and the impacts of UBI. The results also tend to be skewed, with certain impacts of UBI being assigned a heavier weight in disregard of the context. Take the Finnish trial that provided 2,000 people with a €560 monthly pay.

The trial is often quoted as having little impact on employment. About 18% and 27% of participants got a job over 2 years, showing little difference with the control group. Yet this trial specifically covered the young and the long-term unemployed – a group facing high and well-known barriers in (re)entering the labour market.

The results, although valuable, should be cautiously extrapolated to the general population. The same applies to impacts on well-being and equity. The main point is that all trial results require coherent analysis to guide decisions based on systematic rather than selective interpretations of UBI impacts.

What we’re missing

Critical things are lacking.

Alternative and adjacent policy ideas need serious exploration. We need to think of Universal Basic Services as an alternative approach and carbon price-and-dividend as adjacent to UBI. Cases have been made for all but, moving forward, they need to be assessed against the same targets and desired impacts.

Key gaps exist in the understanding of UBI as part of a system rather than a standalone game-changing solution.

First, largely uncovered are the links of UBI with minimum wages, pensions, and severance pay. Second, the interplays of UBI with societal agendas (e.g., its gendered outcomes, impacts on inequalities or political participation) and international frameworks (e.g., if and how UBI feeds into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the climate commitments) are under-analysed. All require stronger knowledge to inform comparative analysis and debates on trade-offs.

Data on UBI exists but it has loopholes and blind spots. The flow of data – between the developing and developed countries – and its use face obstacles. Valuable insights are lost in the silos of different policy experiments and jurisdictional limits.

And lastly, as often, much work remains to be done to connect the worlds of knowledge and policy on UBI if the intent is to move ahead smartly. The former holds data, the latter holds the power of acting upon it.

By John Crowley & Iulia Sevciuc

This piece is based on the work of the UNESCO Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme and the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab. Experts of the Lab have contributed extensively with data and analysis to this work. It originally appeared at weforum.org and is republished with permission.

The authors are members of the World Economic Forum Expert Network.

Tags: Universal Basic Income

Related Posts

From stress to success: a diagnostic for navigating identity and change at work
Opinion

From stress to success: a diagnostic for navigating identity and change at work

Supply, Demand, and Inflation: The Big Picture
Opinion

What Is the US Economy’s Potential Growth Rate?

Trade tensions rise as China bans mineral exports to U.S.
Opinion

Is China circumventing US tariffs via Mexico and Canada?

AI Could Make These Common Jobs More Productive Without Sacrificing Quality
Opinion

Research explores the political preferences of small business owners

China accuses U.S. of ‘provoking new economic and trade frictions’
Opinion

How US-China trade rivalry became a trigger for innovation

5 Questions for Business Leaders to Ask in Uncertain Times
Opinion

Developing Frontline Leaders to Drive Team Performance

The real value of vendor partnerships for CIOs
Opinion

The payoff of meaningful employee belonging

The unstoppable rise of digital wallets: a business case that stacks up
Opinion

Business Ethics in Finance: Lessons From the Wells Fargo Scandal

Private payroll growth slows in June, led by leisure and hospitality sector
Opinion

Pay Transparency in the Workplace

What to do before the Fed cuts interest rates
Opinion

The 6 stages of systemic investing

No Result
View All Result

Recent Posts

  • From stress to success: a diagnostic for navigating identity and change at work
  • Kering and L’Oréal forge new  $4.66 billion alliance
  • White House Economic Advisor says shutdown could end this week
  • Trump to resume trade talks with China
  • Amazon Web Services outage hits major websites: What we know so far as recovery begins

Archives

Categories

  • Art & Culture
  • Business
  • CEO Interviews
  • CEO Life
  • Editor´s Choice
  • Entrepreneur
  • Environment
  • Food
  • Health
  • Highlights
  • Industry
  • Innovation
  • Issues
  • Management & Leadership
  • News
  • Opinion
  • PrimeZone
  • Printed Version
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

  • CONTACT
  • GENERAL ENQUIRIES
  • ADVERTISING
  • MEDIA KIT
  • DIRECTORY
  • TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Advertising –
advertising@ceo-na.com

110 Wall St.,
3rd Floor
New York, NY.
10005
USA
+1 212 432 5800

Avenida Chapultepec 480,
Floor 11
Mexico City
06700
MEXICO

  • News
  • CEO Interviews
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • Environment
  • CEO Life

  • CONTACT
  • GENERAL ENQUIRIES
  • ADVERTISING
  • MEDIA KIT
  • DIRECTORY
  • TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Advertising –
advertising@ceo-na.com

110 Wall St.,
3rd Floor
New York, NY.
10005
USA
+1 212 432 5800

Avenida Chapultepec 480,
Floor 11
Mexico City
06700
MEXICO

CEO North America © 2024 - Sitemap

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Business
    • Entrepreneur
    • Industry
    • Innovation
    • Management & Leadership
  • CEO Interviews
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • Environment
  • CEO Life
    • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.