Working Paper: NBER ID: w25598
Authors: Abhijit Banerjee; Paul Niehaus; Tavneet Suri
Abstract: Should developing countries give everyone enough money to live on? Interest in this idea has grown enormously in recent years, reflecting both positive results from a number of existing cash transfer programs and also dissatisfaction with the perceived limitations of piecemeal, targeted approaches to reducing extreme poverty. We discuss what we know (and what we do not) about three questions: what recipients would likely do with the incremental income, whether this would unlock further economic growth, and the potential consequences of giving the money to everyone (as opposed to targeting it).
Keywords: Universal Basic Income; Cash Transfers; Poverty Alleviation
JEL Codes: O1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Cash transfers (F16) | Positive outcomes (I31) |
| UBI (J65) | Alleviating financial constraints (G51) |
| UBI (J65) | Reducing psychological burdens (E71) |
| UBI (J65) | Increasing social cohesion (Z13) |
| UBI (J65) | Individual and household decision-making (D10) |
| Positive outcomes (I31) | Alleviating constraints on growth (O49) |
| UBI could help some individuals (H53) | UBI may not be universally optimal (D69) |