A Guaranteed Annual Income: Evidence from a Social Experiment brings together the first accounting of evidence on the impact of the Seattle/Denver Income-Maintenance Experiments (SIME/DIME) on participating individuals and families. It is based on a selection of papers delivered to policymakers, program administrators, and researchers at a conference held at Orcas Island, Washington, in May 1978. The conference, sponsored by HEW and the State of Washington, represented the first effort to disseminate to a wide audience the findings emerging from early analyses. The book is divided into four parts. Part I presents a general introduction to the experimental design, results, and data. Part II presents the experimental effects on work behavior for various family members, including results on job satisfaction, the demand for childcare on the part of single mothers, and the incorporation of the labor supply results into a simulation of national welfare reform alternatives. Part III discusses the experimental effects on family behavior, including marital stability, psychological effects, and effects on the demand for children (fertility). Part IV contains five studies of how the benefits were used by the families, including effects on migration, education and training, demand for assets, and the use of subsidized housing programs.

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This book is about an idea that has a long and distinguished pedigree, the idea of a right to a basic income. This means having a modest income guaranteed – a right without conditions, just as every citizen should have the right to clean water, fresh air and a good education.