Experimenting with Unconditional Basic Income: Lessons from the Finnish BI Experiment 2017-2018

This insightful book provides a comprehensive analysis of the nationwide randomised Finnish basic income experiment 2017 to 2018, from planning and implementation through to the end results. It presents the background of the social policy system in which the experiment was implemented and details the narratives of the planning process alongside its constraints, as well as a final evaluation of the results. Empirical chapters analyse the outcomes of the experiment in relation to the employment, health and well-being, in various forms, of the recipients of unconditional income transfer. Phenomenological aspects of living on basic income, based on face-to-face interviews, are also reported, as well as media discourse on the experiment and its results. This thought-provoking book concludes with an examination of the political feasibility of basic income in Finland. Offering important lessons on the planning and implementation of such experiments in a developed welfare state, this unique book will be a vital resource for scholars and students of social policy, welfare economics, basic security and basic income.

Table of Contents:
Contents: 1 Introduction to the journey of the Finnish basic income experiment 1 Olli Kangas, Signe Jauhiainen, Miska Simanainen and Minna Ylikännö 2 The Finnish social security system: Background to the Finnish basic income experiment 6 Olli Kangas and Miska Simanainen 3 Making of the Finnish basic income experiment 18 Olli Kangas 4 Constitutional preconditions for the Finnish basic income experiment 37 Anna-Kaisa Tuovinen 5 Evaluation of the experiment 44 Signe Jauhiainen, Olli Kangas, Miska Simanainen and Minna Ylikännö 6 Basic income and employment 55 Minna Ylikännö and Olli Kangas 7 Subjective health, well-being and cognitive capabilities 71 Miska Simanainen and Annamari Tuulio-Henriksson 8 Financial well-being in basic income experiment 89 Maarit Lassander and Signe Jauhiainen 9 The bureaucracy of claiming benefits 106 Miska Simanainen 10 Trust, capabilities, confidence and basic income 117 Olli Kangas, Minna Ylikännö and Mikko Niemelä 11 What explains the popular support for basic income? 134 Miska Simanainen and Olli Kangas 12 Life on basic income – Interview accounts by basic income experiment participants on the effects of the experiment 150 Helena Blomberg, Christian Kroll and Laura Tarkiainen 13 Media coverage of the Finnish basic income experiment 169 Katja Mäkkylä 14 The feasibility of universal basic income 187 Olli Kangas Index

About the Author :
Edited by Olli Kangas, Director, Equal Society Strategic Research Programme, Academy of Finland and Professor of Practice, Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Signe Jauhiainen, Senior Researcher, Miska Simanainen, Researcher, Research Unit, Social Insurance Institution of Finland and Minna Ylikännö, Specialist, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Finland

Review :
‘...a highly insightful and easy-to-read study of an experiment considering the implications of BI.’ ‘The editors of this brilliant volume argue that basic income is the ‘‘money of trust‘‘. Basic income advocates and critics alike will read this book to unpack and correct the media portrait of an ambitious experiment designed to determine the extent to which we can or should trust one another and our social institutions. Researchers will be, by turns, fascinated and terrified by the “politics” of conducting controversial social experiments on vulnerable human beings under the gaze of the international media.‘