When the federal government created the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to help Canadians who had lost their jobs in the COVID-19 lockdown, it sparked renewed interest in the idea of a basic income. However, many policy questions need to be discussed and resolved in order to assess a...

This paper addresses four persistent legal and philosophical issues that imbue workfare, albeit usually not explicitly. First, forced labour is relatively common charge against workfare. If workfare is tantamount to forced labour, it cannot be justified, legally or morally. But to what extent do...

In the last century we have witnessed a gradual replacement of unskilled workers by machines. Following this development, there is a renewed call for analyzing the basic income proposal, which helps displaced workers to confront the situation. Since the general (population-wide) Basic Income...

Proponents of Basic Income (BI) argue that BI schemes can deliver universal, unconditional support more effectively than conventional social security programmes. This paper examines that claim. Consideration is given to the form BI schemes can take, and their attractions, before turning to the...

Unconditional basic income is not a new topic in political economy, and it gains new momentum as more and more research is being devoted to it. The discussion focuses on the adequacy and effects such a policy measure may entail for a person and his socio-economic situation, usually. Object of...

Starting in 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend allows each full-time resident in Alaska, including infants born in the qualifying year, to receive a sizable dividend. This dividend, which represents a form of a Universal Basic Income on a small scale, could alter incentives surrounding...

Minimum income schemes are set to provide citizens with a minimum living standard. In Spain, these schemes consist of a heterogeneous and complex collection of regional benefits designed and implemented by the Autonomous Communities. This generates important regional discrepancies among the...