A guaranteed income experiment

Tyler Cowan writes on the findings, which are:

• 1,000 low-income individuals were randomized into receiving $1,000 per month unconditionally for three years
• A control group of 2,000 participants receiving $50/ month
• The transfer caused total individual income to fall by about $1,500/year relative to the control group, excluding the transfers.
• The program resulted in a 2.0 percentage point decrease in labor market participation for participants and a 1.3-1.4 hour per week reduction in labor hours, with participants’ partners reducing their hours worked by a comparable amount.
• The transfer generated the largest increases in time spent on leisure, as well as smaller increases in time spent in other activities such as transportation and finances.
• We find no impact on quality of employment, and our confidence intervals can rule out even small improvements.
• No significant effects on investments in human capital