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Image: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
More Europeans are about to get some free money in the name of economics research.
The European Union is funding a new universal basic income experiment in Barcelona alongside similar tests in Helsinki and the Dutch city of Ultrecht.
Around 1,000 low-income households in one of the city's poorest districts will be randomly selected to receive monthly payments of between €400 ($450) and €525 ($590) for two years. All told, the three programs will cost the EU €13 million ($14.7 million).
The study is the latest in a series of research efforts launched across the globe in recent months to put the policy to the test in a real-world setting.
The idea of a universal basic income — a system in which a government would give every citizen equal no-strings-attached payments — has been gaining traction lately thanks in part to endorsements from big-name Silicon Valley moguls (most recently Mark Zuckerberg) and the looming threat of automation-driven job loss.
Already this year, experiments have been announced or launched in Ontario, Oakland, and Uganda in addition to the European trials.
A survey earlier this year found that seven in 10 Europeans would vote for a UBI policy if given the chance.
Despite the supposed popular support, though, the people of Switzerland resoundingly voted down a countrywide proposal in a referendum last year.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — an intergovernmental group of free-market democracies — also concluded in a policy brief last month that a UBI implemented across European countries would require substantial tax hikes in order to match the poverty line.
The newfound enthusiasm for studying the concept should help figure out those details for sure.
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