Basic Income Principles, Welfare Mechanisms, and Labour Market Responses

Simon Watkins ()

Chapter Chapter 2 in Basic Income, Work Incentives and Job Search Behaviour, 2025, pp 15-31 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter defines basic income and examines the dimensions that underpin it. It focuses on three principles that are fundamental to a basic income, and which relate to the potential impact of a basic income on job search behaviour amongst unemployed people. The three principles are unconditionality, universalism and non-withdrawal of benefits. From these core principles, three welfare mechanisms are identified, which link basic income to existing welfare regimes. It is from this link between theoretical principles and welfare mechanisms that the analysis throughout this book is developed. The importance of this chapter and of the book more broadly is in linking abstract theoretical terms, such as universalism, to empirically grounded welfare mechanisms that shape existing welfare regimes and their impacts on behaviour. By developing these links, we gain a better understanding of how basic income would function, its potential impact on job search behaviour and labour market participation more broadly.

Keywords: Unconditionality and conditionality; Universalism and selectivism; Non-withdrawal of benefits; Unemployment trap; Participation tax rates; Work incentives; Welfare mechanisms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:etbchp:978-3-031-99197-4_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-99197-4_2

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