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Outline

Title
Abstract
Introduction
Data Collection
The Main Themes and Questions for a Bi Experiment
Ontario Basic Income Pilot Design Features
Methodological Proposal for a Basic Income Pilot
Designating Geographic Sites Should Be Avoided
Summary and Conclusions
References

Evaluating the basic income using an experiment

Profile image of Gregory MasonGregory Mason

2019

Abstract

The basic income experiments of the seventies such as the Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment and more recently, the Ontario Basic Income Pilot (OBIP), offer important lessons for the design and conduct of large-scale policy experiments. Such policy analyses promise to test the validity of the expected consequences in advance of committing the full resources for interventions such as the basic income. However, these ambitious studies have failed for three main reasons. First, elaborate research projects require a level of sustained logistical support and patience that few governments seem willing or able to offer. Second, proponents for a basic income appear to argue that it is general antidote for many of modern society’s ills. This has created complex theories of change linking a single intervention to a myriad of outcomes that that demand increasingly complicated analyses. Finally, social policy pilots continue to rely on survey data that introduces a multitude errors that un...

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