A Truly Missed Opportunity: The Political Context and Impact of the Basic Income Experiment in Finland

Abstract

Finland conducted the first nationwide field experiment with partial basic income between 2017 and 2018. The experiment and its results were widely reported in international media and featured in political debates across the globe. Domestically, the experiment had an impact on social policy debates but no impact on social policy. For example, it did not feature in the Social Security 2030 project or in the work of the Social Security Reform Committee (2020–2027). The research setting for the experiment was compromised from the beginning due to political reasons; but the scientific power was further undermined by a new sanctioning model, which was implemented in 2018 at the beginning of the second year of the basic income experiment. The new Government taking office in 2019 promised to continue with a negative income tax experiment; however, no such experiment was conducted. The article will unpack these developments in Finland and discuss possible explanations for denouncing basic income as a policy idea.

Can a Basic Income Make the Digital Revolution More Sustainable and Inclusive?

“…The well-known Finnish experiment is a case in point (Hiilamo, 2022). Targeting only those on unemployment benefits, it existed within the ambit of an already generous social security system.…”

A basic income for every crisis? Building blocks of a political economy framework

“…Chrisp & Martinelli (2021) similarly find that there is a negative interaction between automation risk on the one hand and income, education and union membership on the other with respect to support for basic income. 10 In Finland, the increased framing of basic income as an activation device has arguably contributed to the Sipilä government conducting the now famous experiment in 2017-2018 (Perkiö 2020), but importantly interest in basic income dissipated almost entirely in its aftermath (Hiilamo, 2022).…”

“… 10. In Finland, the increased framing of basic income as an activation device has arguably contributed to the Sipilä government conducting the now famous experiment in 2017–18 (Perkiö, 2020), but, importantly, interest in basic income dissipated almost entirely in its aftermath (Hiilamo, 2022). …”

Multilayered Emergent Phenomena Caused by Basic Income and Labor Supply on the Wider Economic System

“…However, some have argued that the demonstrations are problematic because of the way the experiments are set up and because of the changes in the implementation planning phase [5,6]. Moreover, a Hawthorne effect-like phenomenon may have occurred during the demonstrations [7].…”

“…Regarding the analyses of the demonstration experiments, it is possible that changes made at the planning stage may have altered the effectiveness of individual BI systems [5,6] and caused phenomena such as the Hawthorne effect [7], with many questions about the social effects of large-scale implementation remaining unresolved [8].…”