The Impacts of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot: A Comparative Analysis of the Findings from the Hamilton Region

This article provides the findings of a quantitative and qualitative study of participants from the prematurely cancelled Ontario Basic Income Pilot in the Hamilton region. We compare our evidence with those of other large-scale experiments from the high-income countries between 1968 and 2019 to pla...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Basic income studies 2021-12, Vol.16 (2), p.209-256
Main Authors: McDowell, Tom, Ferdosi, Mohammad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Basic income
basic income guarantee
Comparative analysis
Experiments
Labor market
negative income tax
Ontario Basic Income Pilot
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article provides the findings of a quantitative and qualitative study of participants from the prematurely cancelled Ontario Basic Income Pilot in the Hamilton region. We compare our evidence with those of other large-scale experiments from the high-income countries between 1968 and 2019 to place OBIP’s findings in the context of evidence from randomized control experiments with similar policy conditions to Ontario’s. Our study identified a small decline in labour market participation, but improvements on a variety of quality-of-life measurements. We hypothesize that OBIPs comparatively positive results on general well-being can be attributed to its: i) generous benefit rates relative to social assistance rates; ii) 50 percent take back rate; and iii) unconditionality; iv) broad well-being/welfare design.
ISSN:1932-0183
2194-6094
1932-0183
DOI:10.1515/bis-2020-0034