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Stephen Lunst – Finland’s Universal Basic Income Trial Elicits Positive Results And Improved Wellbeing

Summary:
The Finish Basic Income experiment didn't fully test the idea.Once people got a Basic Income they were more prepared to take on a low income job. I guess it makes it feel more worthwhile and also less stressful. It shows how incentives can work - the carrot or the stick.However, the Finnish study is not a true test of UBI for two reasons: Instead of giving money to a random sample of the population, or perhaps a representative region, all the beneficiaries were unemployed when the study started. Secondly, participants only received €506 (9) a month, hardly an amount sufficient to live on, as UBI is usually imagined. Nevertheless, the study offered an opportunity to test how getting no-strings-attached money would change recipients' job-seeking behavior and affect their mental health.

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The Finish Basic Income experiment didn't fully test the idea.

Once people got a Basic Income they were more prepared to take on a low income job. I guess it makes it feel more worthwhile and also less stressful. It shows how incentives can work - the carrot or the stick.

However, the Finnish study is not a true test of UBI for two reasons: Instead of giving money to a random sample of the population, or perhaps a representative region, all the beneficiaries were unemployed when the study started. Secondly, participants only received €506 ($549) a month, hardly an amount sufficient to live on, as UBI is usually imagined.

Nevertheless, the study offered an opportunity to test how getting no-strings-attached money would change recipients' job-seeking behavior and affect their mental health. Unlike previous smaller experiments, a control group was included.

Opponents of UBI argue free money will cause people to choose not to work, undermining society's capacity to make the payments in the first place. A survey sent to all participants and controls, along with in-depth interviews of a random sample, contradicts this.

Stephen Lunst - Finland's Universal Basic Income Trial Elicits Positive Results And Improved Wellbeing

Mike Norman
Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds and ran a prop trading desk for Credit Suisse.

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