How receiving a basic income affects elderly women

Since October 2016, GiveDirectly has been sending monthly cash transfers to 95 adult residents in a remote village in Kenya. This village is the pilot site for our broader universal basic income initiative. “Remote” is often a code word for “poor.” But other vulnerabilities in age, gender and marital status contribute as much, if not […]

Read more...

Living with a basic income: aspirations (part 3/3)

Part 3 of a 3-part series on lessons we’ve drawn from observing the Universal Basic Income Pilot village over the past year. (Parts 1, 2) For an update on our UBI program please see our UBI study page. “Aspirations” are a hot topic among poverty researchers these days. Following suggestive evidence from studies like this […]

Read more...

Living with a basic income: work (part 2/3)

Part 2 of a 3-part series on lessons we’ve drawn from observing the Universal Basic Income Pilot village over the past year. (Part 1) Perhaps the most controversial question about basic income is how it will affect the way people spend their time. Proponents think it will free them up to take more risk – […]

Read more...

We’re officially launching UBI

It has begun! As I write, field officers in Bomet County, Kenya are beginning to enroll the first (post-pilot) households into the largest basic income initiative in history.The past 19 months since we announced our plans to test UBI have been remarkable. The debate over basic income continues to rage, from skeptics who call it […]

Read more...

Update on UBI and the Kenyan election

Folks, We’ve decided to postpone the launch of our basic income initiative in Kenya until after the new election. Earlier this month Kenya’s Supreme Court voted to nullify the August 8th presidential election results. Presidential candidate Ralia Odinga challenged sitting president Uhuru Kenyatta’s 54% win and appealed to the Supreme Court that the election had […]

Read more...

Why We Invested: GiveDirectly’s Basic Income Experiment

Omidyar Network’s Tracy Williams and Mike Kubzansky describe why Omidyar is investing in GiveDirectly’s basic income experiment. Omidyar Network’s foundational belief that empowering people frees them to better themselves, their families, and their communities has great evidence in the growing literature around the benefits of cash transfers. In these programs, low income individuals who receive […]

Read more...

Some basic (income) questions, answered

“Cash transfers… universal basic income, what’s the difference?”  That’s the question a lot of people have been asking us recently. The short answer: a universal basic income (UBI) is a type of cash transfer. As the name suggests, there are three discrete conditions that need to be met to consider a cash transfer a UBI: […]

Read more...