Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In today’s global economy, where informality and insecurity characterise working life for millions, scholars, activists, and political authorities are looking for radical solutions. One of the most commonly advanced is universal basic income (UBI), which is widely theorised as a tool for enhancing worker power and improving work, through offering workers an ‘exit option’. Critics retort that social and economic life are too complex for UBI to be a magic bullet and that UBI could even make life worse. To date, very few studies have empirically interrogated this debate. This paper reports findings from what we believe to be the first two pilots to do so. Both combined unconditional cash and community organiser support in India and Bangladesh over two years. Our findings suggest that UBI can enhance worker power, enable partial exit, and support collective organisation. Its limitations leave us doubtful, however, that UBI alone could fundamentally alter labour relations.
Source: Basic Income Studies
Authors: Neil Howard, Vibhor Mathur
Institution: University of Bath
Language: English
Topic: Labor Movements and Unions
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,712
Funder: European Research Council
Award: G1220491374
OpenAlex ID: W4413129677