The Macroeconomic Effects of a UBI: A Review of Existing Evidence and Approaches

Research on UBI has blossomed in recent years, with a particular focus on conducting experiments with policies that share features with a UBI, microsimulation analysis and public opinion surveys. However, a common drawback with many of these approaches is the difficulty with examining 'general equilibrium' or 'community' effects. Macroeconomic modelling is one tool used to explore these more difficult questions of what would happen if a UBI was implemented at the national level. In this paper, a review of existing analysis of the macroeconomic effects of a UBI offers an insight into the assumptions, approaches and results of these studies and how these are interlinked. Recommendations are made to increase the diversity of models used and the mechanisms and contexts explored.