wow-inequalities/02-data/intermediate/wos_sample/2e6c4e7fae2f2f288af46e60390b6f98-volkov-aleksey-m./info.yaml

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2023-09-28 14:46:10 +00:00
abstract: 'The article describes development of the idea of unconditional basic
income in some Nordic countries. There were active discussions in the
early 1980s and in 1992-1994 in Denmark and experiment was conducted on
the introduction of unconditional basic income in Finland in 2017-2018.
Basic income has never been seriously considered in Denmark on a
practical level. For the first time, interest in basic income arose in
Denmark in the 1980s. Once again, the issue of basic income was on the
official policy agenda in 1992-1994, when there was extensive discussion
on this issue. In many ways, these debates were associated with the
development of the system of unemployment benefits in the country at
that time and a number of economic, institutional and political
circumstances. The idea of basic income was considered as a fatal blow,
either too controversial or unrealistic, showing that it would require
considerable money. Thus, by the mid-1990s, this idea was categorically
rejected and disappeared forever from the agenda in Denmark. The
unconditional basic income in Finland has been discussed for the last 10
years. It was believed that due to the mass robotization and the
introduction of artificial intelligence, a huge number of people would
lose their jobs in the future, and the universal basic income will force
people to accept temporary contract work which ultimately will increase
labor mobility and efficiency. By the classical definition unconditional
basic income is the regular payment of a certain amount of money to each
member of the community without checking the financial situation or the
need to do work. The experiment with unconditional basic income in
Finland did not fully meet this definition. First, only the unemployed
could take part in it. Secondly, the experiment participants continued
to receive benefits from other support systems. The authorities decided
to focus on the unemployed in order to understand whether unconditional
basic income encourages employment. The 2,000 citizens selected by
lottery were unemployed, poor, and were between the ages of 25 and 58
years old. They received 560 euros per month, while the payment did not
stop even after they found a job. Intermediate results of the experiment
were almost completely opposite to the expected. Requests of recipients
of basic income to the labor market have only increased. They said they
were not ready to grab any job, and made more and more demands. Both for
employers and for trade unions such an outcome was an unpleasant
surprise. The preliminary results of the experiment with an
unconditional basic income showed that in the first year participants in
the experiment were looking for a little more actively than other
unemployed people. Although the Finnish authorities did not officially
comment on anything, all the experts said that the two-year tests showed
the project''s inconsistency. First, the ``free{''''} money was in fact an
unconditional unemployment benefit, that is, there was nothing new in
the proposed version of the universal basic income. Secondly, the
government did not conceal that the experiment with the basic income was
not aimed at reducing the number of the poor or fighting inequality -
its main task was ``promoting employment{''''}. If all citizens received
unconditional basic income, additional social spending would be about
5\% of GDP. This is a lot, even taking into account the fact that
Finland spends about 30\% of GDP on social spending. A universal basic
income can only be successful if provided on a continuous and universal
basis.
But it requires a lot of money and higher taxes which most people
disagree with.'
affiliation: 'Volkov, AM (Corresponding Author), Russian Acad Sci IMEMO, Primakov
Natl Res Inst World Econ \& Int Relat, 23 Profsoyuznaya Str, Moscow 117997, Russia.
Volkov, Aleksey M., Russian Acad Sci IMEMO, Primakov Natl Res Inst World Econ \&
Int Relat, 23 Profsoyuznaya Str, Moscow 117997, Russia.'
author: Volkov, Aleksey M.
author-email: volkov@imemo.ru
author_list:
- family: Volkov
given: Aleksey M.
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.20542/0131-2227-2020-64-9-48-52
files: []
issn: 0131-2227
journal: MIROVAYA EKONOMIKA I MEZHDUNARODNYE OTNOSHENIYA
keywords: 'unconditional basic income; unemployment; unemployment benefits;
experiment; Denmark; Finland'
language: Russian
month: SEP
number: '9'
number-of-cited-references: '11'
pages: 48-52
papis_id: fa46dfdd03849f1f65783f4ef439ab3d
ref: Volkov2020basicincome
times-cited: '0'
title: 'BASIC INCOME IN SOME NORDIC COUNTRIES: THEORY AND PRACTICE'
2023-10-01 08:15:07 +00:00
type: article
2023-09-28 14:46:10 +00:00
unique-id: WOS:000569064000005
usage-count-last-180-days: '4'
usage-count-since-2013: '35'
volume: '64'
web-of-science-categories: International Relations
year: '2020'