The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income

“This Handbook offers a timely ‘snapshot’ of the fast-moving global debates on Basic Income. Embracing a range of ideological, ethical, historical and cross-national perspectives, it looks at the case for Basic Income through both a focused and a wide-angled lens. Rather than asserting hard and fast conclusions, it ends with the valuable message that context is all.”
—Ruth Lister, Loughborough University, UK 

“A must-read Handbook that provides solid foundations for the growing number of researchers, policymakers and campaigners involved in the ongoing debate on Basic Income."
—Rubén M. Lo Vuolo, the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Public Policy, Argentina

A Basic Income is an unconditional regular payment for every individual. But is it desirable? And is it feasible? This Handbook brings together scholars from various disciplines and from around the world to examine the history, characteristics, effects, viability and implementation of Basic Income. A variety of pilot projects and ideological perspectives are considered in depth.

Part I: Introductory chapters.- Chapter 1: Introduction; Malcolm Torry.- Chapter 2: The definition and characteristics of Basic Income; Malcolm Torry.- Chapter 3: Three waves of Basic Income support; Karl Widerquist.- Part II: Some of the likely effects of Basic Income.- Chapter 4: Employment market effects of Basic Income; Richard Gilbert, Ursula Huws, Gunmin Yi.- Chapter 5: Social effects of Basic Income; Jenni Mays.- Chapter 6: Some effects of Basic Income on economic variables; Meghnad Desai, Ana Helena Palermo.- Chapter 7: Ecological Effects of Basic Income; Michael W. Howard, Jorge Pinto, Ulrich Schachtschneider.- Chapter 8 : The gender effects of a Basic Income; Annie Miller, Toru Yamamori, Almaz Zelleke.- Part III: The feasibility and implementation of Basic Income.-Chapter 9: The feasibility and implementation of Basic Income; Malcolm Torry.- Chapter 10: Alternative funding methods; Julio Andrade, Geoff Crocker, Stewart Lansley.- Chapter 11: Analysis of the financial effects of Basic Income; Gareth Morgan, Howard Reed, Malcolm Torry.- Chapter 12: Alternatives to Basic Income; Benjamin Leff, Andrew Percy, Michael Story, Maciej Szlinder.- Chapter 13: Framing Basic Income: Comparing media framing of Basic Income in Canada, Finland, and Spain; Johanna Perkiö, Leire Rincon, Jenna van Draanen.- Chapter 14: The Philosophy and Political Economy of Basic Income Revisited; Louise Haagh.- Part IV: Pilot projects and other experiments.- Chapter 15: The Negative Income Tax experiments of the 1970s; Karl Widerquist.- Chapter 16: Citizen’s Basic Income in Brazil: From Bolsa Família to pilot experiments; Valéria Ferreira Santos de Almada Lima, Maria Ozanira da Silva e Silva.- Chapter 17: Basic Income by default: Lessons from Iran’s ‘cash subsidy’ programme; Massoud Karshenas, Hamid Tabatabai.- Chapter 18: The Namibian Basic Income Grant Pilot; Claudia, Dirk Haarmann, Nicoli Nattrass.- Chapter 19: Pilots, evidence and politics: The Basic Income debate in India; Sarath Davala.- Chapter 20: The Finnish Basic Income experiment: A primer; Jurgen De Wispelaere, Antti Halmetoja, Ville-Veikko Pulkka.- Chapter 21: A variety of experiments; Julen Bollain, Loek Groot, Annie Miller, Enno Schmidt, Enkeleida Tahiraj, Timo Verlaat, Gunmin Yi.- Part V: Political and ethical perspectives.- Chapter 22: Libertarian perspectives on Basic Income; Miranda Perry Fleischer, Otto Lehto.- Chapter 23: Socialist arguments for Basic Income; David Casassas, Daniel Raventós, Maciej Szlinder.- Chapter 24: Neither left nor right; Joe Chrisp Luke Martinelli.- Chapter 25: Trade Unions and Basic Income; Troy Henderson, John Quiggin.- Chapter 26: The ethics of Basic Income; Simon Birnbaum.- Part VI: Concluding chapter.- Chapter 27: Tentative conclusions; Malcolm Torry.

Malcolm Torry is the Director of the Citizen’s Basic Income Trust and Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. His research interests include the reform of the benefits system, and particularly the Basic Income debate.