At long last, the first working papers have been released for a project I’ve been working on since 2016: an evaluation of a program that provided $1000/month unconditionally for 3 years to 1000 low-income individuals, while another 2000 received $50/month as the control group.
The papers:
- The Employment Effects of a Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence from Two U.S. States
- Does Income Affect Health? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Guaranteed Income
In time, I’ll say a lot more about what we found, but for now I just want to recognize what an immense team effort it has been. It’s been an incredible experience working with Alex Bartik, David Broockman, Patrick Krause, Sarah Miller, and Elizabeth Rhodes. But also, so, so many people have contributed to this project in one way or another.
It also wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that OpenResearch really enabled a different kind of project than is typical in economics. Massive amounts of thought went into this, from a lengthy piloting phase to Elizabeth Rhodes tracking down participants and designing a font that looked like her handwriting so she could add personalized notes to postcards sent to keep people engaged. All the details were thought of, all the bases covered, all the grants were applied to, and all the outcomes collected. Partners helped to pass a law in Illinois to ensure participants would not lose important benefits. A custom mobile app was developed. We were even able to collect biomarkers at endline to investigate potential health effects, a massive logistical effort.
It’s been a real pleasure working with this team. Some first papers are linked above, but expect more coming soon.