A research project into universal basic income (UBI)backed by ChatGPT creator Sam Altman has found that recipients spend more on themselves and others, while also working slightly fewer hours.
OpenResearch, a project backed by OpenAI’s Altman, looked at a cohort of people in Illinois and Texas who received $1,000 per month over a period of three years. The researchers produced a suite of research reports looking at how UBI affected employment, spending, health and entrepreneurship.
Looking at participants’ working status over time, UBI recipients were 2 percentage points less likely to be employed during the second and third years of the experiment. There was also more variation in employment rates among those who received the income compared to a ‘control’ group who did not.
Across the three years, UBI recipients worked an average of 1.3 fewer hours a week than the other group, and there was a more widespread variation in working hours.
Universal basic income
The impact of UBI on total household income was less than the increase experienced by control participants, partly because the trial began during the pandemic, which had limited people’s earning capabilities.
That said, although both individual and household income were lower for recipients at the end of the program without taking UBI into account, recipients’ average individual income was roughly $10,000 higher and average household income was roughly $6,100 higher for recipients (including the UBI) than control participants, the researchers found.
Income aside, participants said the main benefit of UBI during the period was the flexibility to plan and pursue goals in line with their values, what researchers called “agency”.
Access to a monthly income meant they could budget and plan for the future and were no longer limited by unstable living conditions or being stressed by jobs they disliked.
One said: “The programme actually helped me become more responsible with funds. Because I did have a lot more money, I was able to budget a lot better. Before, I wasn’t necessarily budgeting, mainly because I didn’t have much funding coming in.”
By the end of the project, recipients were more likely to plan to pursue further education compared to the control group and had significantly more interest in entrepreneurial activities. Black recipients were 9 percentage points more likely to report starting a business, for example.
Another recipient said: “I feel more in control of my destiny. Because of not only the additional income but the consistency of the income, it allowed me to plan, to forecast, to dream, to achieve things that I thought I wouldn’t be able to achieve because I couldn’t see beyond them financially.”
UBI recipients also reported taking more positive steps to preserve their health, the researchers found. While there were “no significant effects on measures of physical health”, there were “notable improvements” in stress, mental distress and food security.
The cash reduced certain types of alcohol and drug abuse, and participants were more likely to seek medical or dental care rather than delay it due to lack of funds.
Last year, think tank Autonomy proposed a trial in England of UBI where participants would be paid £1,600 a month without any obligation to work.
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