Exploring Universal Basic Income

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.