Thread by @Athan_K

Yet another Universal Basic Income study was released just before the holidays.

While being given ~$500 per month in free money, participants only ended up $100 richer and smoked more cigarettes.

The full results are eye opening. (1/10)

The study gave about $500 per month to 695 households over two years in Compton, California. Another 1,402 were designated as a control group. The findings: (2/10)

“Receiving guaranteed income had no impact on the labor supply of full-time workers, but part-time workers had a lower labor market participation by 13 percentage points.” (3/10)

“Income (excluding the transfer) was reduced by $333 per month on average relative to control households, and expenditures were reduced by $302 per month.” (4/10)

“At the same time, average non-housing debt balances declined by $2,190 over 18 months relative to the control group, although the drop is not statistically significant.” (5/10)

“We find a significant improvement in housing security, but no overall effects on indices of psychological and financial well-being.” (6/10)

“The recipients of twice-monthly transfers were more likely to own a car, had lower credit card debt and greater food security than recipients of quarterly transfers, but otherwise transfer frequency had little impact.” (7/10)

“In sum, the cash transfers have a strong positive impact on the index of housing security, but
no clear impact on the indices of psychological well-being, financial security, or food security.” (8/10)

“The list experiments show strong evidence of relative reductions in IPV, weak evidence of reduced alcohol consumption, and moderately strong evidence of relative increases in tobacco consumption.” (9/10)

Read the full study for yourself. (10/10) drive.google.com/file/d/1HBZ_kJ…