Welcome to our expert series on the post-COVID reset. That is, a reset along a more inclusive path. The series introduces listeners to leading thinkers as they debate concrete policy options for such a recovery and take stock of the data that could (and should) inform these policy shifts.
This is a 3-part podcast on the Californian guaranteed income experiment. We go deep into the trial, probing it from all angles – design, results, financing – and extracting lessons that others might draw on.
Our experts are Stacia West and Amy Castro Baker. Their expertise is in basic income, unconditional cash transfers, women’s poverty, and wealth inequality. They are the independent co-evaluators of the guaranteed income trial in Stockton, California. Their roles and the data these evaluators bring are key to our discussion today.
The hosts are UNESCO’s John Crowley and Iulia Sevciuc.
Part 1: Design, results, and performance in crisis
This part is concerned with the Californian pilot itself. It delves into the:
- Design of the trial – what was the basic set-up (numbers, criteria, process, evaluation, limitations) and how it was meant to interact with the rest of the social security system and the existing safety net;
- Results – what are the key, including gendered, outcomes and why such a strong impact on employment;
- Crisis – how the pilot (unintentionally) overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic and what we could learn from that on the use of basic income as both a standing policy tool and an emergency response.
| ► PLAY PART 1: Design, results, and performance in crisis
Part 2: Financing
Financing is critical to any talk on basic income. This part discusses:
- Californian case – how specifically the Stockton guaranteed income pilot was funded;
- Scale up – how the other 14 upcoming US pilots will be financed; and
- Long-term sources – what are the options of financing sustained and sustainable basic income schemes; how/if traditional ways (e.g., oil and natural resource-derived funding, reallocation of existing funds) and innovative sources (e.g., carbon price-and-dividend, data-driven funding, and dividends from marketing socially-owned data) could be combined.
| ► PLAY PART 2: Financing
Have you read?
Basic Income – think data then policy
Greening the Basic Income
Gender inequality in times of COVID-19 – give women cash
Minimum subsistence income, the Spanish way
Part 3: Data and policy
As always, our key concern at the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab is connecting knowledge and data to policy. This part, therefore, goes into:
- Knowledge gaps – what we know and what we lack in data on basic income; and
- Policy use – what deserves increased attention in debates on basic income.
| ► PLAY PART 3: Data and policy
Listen for more
Basic Income – deciphering the promises and the data
Close social protection gaps to reset equitably after COVID-19
Universal Basic Income and beyond - what are our options for recovery
....
Amy Castro Baker is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the co-director of the Centre for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
John Crowley is UNESCO's chief of research, policy and foresight. He is the author of 5 books and a further 100 academic articles and book chapters, mainly on political theory and comparative politics.
Iulia Sevciuc is UNESCO’s lead on inclusive policies and the data-driven policy change. Prior to this appointment, Iulia worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Indonesia and Moldova.
Stacia West is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Social Work. She is the co-founder and director of the Centre for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
The interviewees are responsible for the facts cited in the podcast and the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.