The idea of a basic income is becoming increasingly popular both within and outside the UK. It is a policy with many variants which includes components that are relevant for both moderate and radical reforms.

This event, part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, aims to illustrate ways to turn the basic income concept into a practical scheme, with emphasis on a revenue-neutral implementation. We will present recent research related to the estimated fiscal and distributional effects of the implementation of such schemes and the mechanisms that drive these results.

Examples of relevant research include Atkinson et al. (2017), Browne and Immervoll (2017) and Torry (2017).

Read ISER Senior Research Officer Iva Tasseva's new blog "Basic Income – testing of a fascinating policy".

The presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of a revenue-neutral basic income introduction.

Programme

10am: Iva Tasseva, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex: How would Basic Income work in the UK? What are the costs and what are the benefits?

10.30am: Luke Martinelli, Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath: Which countries would benefit most and which countries face the greatest fiscal challenges from implementing Basic Income?

11.10-12noon Panel discussion, chaired by Professor Mike Brewer, Director of ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change

with

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group,

Professor John Hills, Chair of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE,

Dr Malcolm Torry, Director of the Citizen's Income Trust and

Dr Chrysa Leventi, Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.