Basic Income Lab Joins
the Center on Poverty and Inequality
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We’re excited to announce that the Basic Income Lab will join the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI) in September. Joining CPI will strengthen the Lab’s ability to analyze and visualize basic income data and frame policy options. It will also support and situate basic income within CPI’s broader mission to monitor trends, support scientific analysis, develop evidence-based policy, and disseminate research on poverty and inequality. Finally, joining CPI will bring the Lab closer to complementary research on other policy innovations, including baby bonds. The Lab will continue to equip the field with insights and convene stakeholders around the politics, philosophy, economics, and implementation of basic income and related cash policies.
As the Lab joins CPI, its founder, Juliana Bidadanure, will transition to New York University to become Associate Professor of Philosophy. Juliana will remain associated with the Lab as Senior Advisor. Sean Kline, who has co-directed the Lab since 2021, will assume the role of Director. We are grateful to the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society for hosting the Lab to this point.
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Reflecting on the Lab’s Founding |
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When Juliana Bidadanure came to Stanford in 2015, everyone told her that U.S. politics and welfare systems were so regressive that engaging in meaningful political conversations about universal basic income — periodic, unconditional cash payments to all people — felt nearly impossible. But by 2016, fears that artificial intelligence-fueled automation would lead to massive worker displacement reignited interest in basic income, especially in Silicon Valley. Read more about Juliana’s journey to develop the Lab.
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Expanded Pilots Dashboard |
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In 2022, in partnership with the Center for Guaranteed Income Research and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, the Lab launched the Guaranteed Income Pilots Dashboard, which visualizes rigorous evaluation data from pilots across the United States. This data and testimonies from participants shed light on ways in which unconditional cash is providing people the opportunity, freedom, and resilience to build financial security. Since the Dashboard’s launch September 2022, it has expanded to 28 pilots and been featured in 48 news stories nationwide. Explore the Dashboard to learn more.
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Updated Global Map of Experiments |
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Working with colleagues around the world, the Lab’s Research Advisor, Rebecca Hasdell, and Graduate Fellow, José Luis Sabau, recently updated the Lab’s global map of basic income experiments. At the same time, working with our longtime web developer, Hyperobjekt, we added a filtering function and the ability to download all map data. Check out the revised map.
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In Conversation on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Crusade for Racial and Economic Justice |
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In April, the Lab marked the 60-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s crusade for racial and economic justice in Birmingham, Alabama with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute by hosting an inspirational conversation with Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui—two municipal leaders advancing Dr. King’s economic vision by testing a guaranteed income in their communities.
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Supporting Local Government Pilots |
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Local government is uniquely positioned to pioneer innovative and practical solutions to challenges that often seem intractable at the state and federal levels. Released at the end of 2022 in partnership with the National League of Cities and Guaranteed Income Community of Practice, Basic Income and Local Government; A Guide to Municipal Pilots consolidates learning and spotlights principles, insights, and emerging practices to guide municipal leaders and public-private partnerships interested in designing basic income programs that are ethical, equitable, rigorous, informative, and consequential for local, state and national policymaking.
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Since its inception, the Lab has convened stakeholders and equipped practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and advocates with data, analysis, and insights on the politics, philosophy, economics, and implementation of basic income and related cash policies. The Lab has sought to anchor this growing field in principles of economic and racial justice and help translate pilots into equitable and inclusive local, state, and federal policy. This work is made possible with financial support from institutions and individuals like you. Please contact us or donate online ( designating the gift to “Stanford Basic Income Lab") if you can support this work with a tax-deductible gift.
~Thank you!
Sean and Juliana
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Join us @StanfordBIL to get the latest updates from the Lab and current basic Income research, events, and news.
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