Research interests

Minimum Income

One outcome of the gradual decoupling of economic and employment growth is that a main challenge of the future may shift from the question of how to generate new employment to the question of how to distribute our expanding output. A minimum income is a way to distribute rising economic growth without depending on rising employment growth. However, a minimum income could decrease labor supply beyond a level required for financial support. Previous evidence from experiments suggested small declines in wages and hours worked, but had to assume that the treatment effect would remain the same if it were expanded to the population.

I have a project with collaborator(s) that examines the prevailing assumption regarding the consequences of a minimum income on labor supply. In the 1970s, an experiment called the Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment - or MINCOME - was conducted where everyone in a small Canadian town had access to a minimum income for three years. Using a difference-in-difference model, the true effect of a minimum income program on labor supply may be better understood. Adjudicating between individual and community effects is a key contribution of the study. The results suggest that community level effects reduce labor market participation beyond what had previously been reported from individual effects, but there is no reason to fear a collapse in labor supply. This paper was published in the journal, Social Problems and is available here.

In another paper, we examine the impact of Mincome on reasons for not working. While it is well established that basic income policies generate some work withdrawals, it is less well known what people go on to do with their time. The results suggest that basic income recipients are slightly more likely to engage in family activities, education, and other socially productive activities outside paid employment. This paper is available here.

Figure 1: Male Labor Force Participation in Manitoba, Dauphin, and Dauphin Adjusted for Age

Figure 2: Reasons for non-employment by gender