Universal basic income: Is the world ready?

Inequality, precariousness, insecurity are challenges that reforms have done too little to address

Finland has become the first country in Europe to pay unemployed citizens an unconditional monthly sum, in a social experiment that will be watched around the world. Under the two-year pilot scheme, which began on January 1, unemployed Finns will receive a guaranteed sum of €^560 (£475). A wide variety of basic income proposals are circulating today. They differ along many other dimensions, including in the amounts of the basic income, the source of funding, the nature and size of reductions in other transfers that might accompany it. Here is a look:
 
Why now?
 
Labour markets and systems