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GiveDirectly's universal basic income in Kenya (12-year study)

📍 Kenia · 2017 · GiveDirectly

Scale

local

subnational

national

systemic

Description

The world's largest universal basic income (UBI) experiment: since 2017 GiveDirectly has been transferring unconditional payments via mobile money (~US$0.75/adult/day) to villages in Siaya and Bomet. Village-level randomized design: long-term UBI (12 years, 44 villages), short-term UBI (2 years, 80 villages), lump sum (~US$500, 71 villages) and control (100 villages); 295 villages and ~14,474 households. Two-year results (NBER, Dec 2023) show economic and psychological improvements with no work disincentive.

Linked evidence

▦Universal Basic Income: Short-Term Results from a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya (NBER working paper)NBER / GiveDirectly · 2023Evidence ▦The Effects of a Universal Basic Income during the Covid-19 Pandemic in KenyaBanerjee, Faye, Krueger, Niehaus, Suri · 2021Evidence