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● projectActive · subnational · 2017
GiveDirectly's universal basic income in Kenya (12-year study)
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.
illustrative atlas image · Bernd Dittrich / UnsplashGGiveDirectlyIFInnovations for Poverty Action (IPA)TSTavneet SuriABAbhijit BanerjeeMFMichael Faye
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01 The context
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.
02 How it works
03 What it stands on
Evidence level
Own experience
Grounded in published theory
Documented evidence elsewhere
Independently evaluated here
Peer-reviewed research documents this project: the strongest evidence level in the atlas.
The evidence 2 ›
EvidenceUniversal Basic Income: Short-Term Results from a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya (NBER working paper)NBER / GiveDirectly · 2023
EvidenceThe Effects of a Universal Basic Income during the Covid-19 Pandemic in KenyaBanerjee, Faye, Krueger, Niehaus, Suri · 2021