‘For all we have learned in the decades of work on cash transfers, much remains unknown about how to design cash policies most effectively. How large, and frequent, should such transfers be? How will they be funded? What programs should they replace or be paired with? As many of the governmental and philanthropic responses to Covid-19 have revealed, a cash transfer policy is only as effective as the identification and disbursement systems that underlie it. What infrastructure is needed to make a national basic income possible?

Over the pandemic, researchers at the Jain Family Institute have worked to answer these questions in a series, “From Idea to Reality: Getting to Guaranteed Income.” In this session we propose to present findings from the first two papers in the series: “Building a Helicopter,” focusing on the identification and disbursement architecture to implement a federal basic income policy; and “Reweaving the Safety Net,” focusing on the role of basic income policies and which existing programs they can and cannot replace. The series can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/wtfed6bh

We experienced a  discussion between the authors and experts in the field.

Elaine Maag is a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute - Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center where she studies income support programs with a particular interest in how tax policy supports low- and middle-income families. She is a member of the Tax Policy and Poverty Research Network and a member of the National Academies of Social Insurance Panel on Assured Income. Prior to joining the Urban Institute she worked at the Internal Revenue Service and the General Accountability Office.

Matthew Darling is a Vice President at ideas42 a non-profit that uses insights from behavioral science to improve lives, build better systems and policies, and drive social change. At ideas42, he works in the Economic Justice team, with a focus on projects that concern benefits take up and labor markets. Matthew graduated from Hampshire College with a Bachelor’s Degree in cognitive science and economics, and has a Master’s Degree in Economics from Tufts University.

As the Lead Researcher on Guaranteed Income (GI), Dr. Stephen Nuñez leads JFI’s research into guaranteed income policy, testing its practical application and design by taking on empirical work that offers unique opportunities to understand how GI programs affect individuals and communities. He has also supported modeling work to understand economy-wide effects of GI policy, and the implications for different approaches to financing. Steve holds a PhD in sociology, studying social network analysis with sociologist Mark Granovetter. He also completed a masters in economics at Stanford University, and a bachelors degree in politics from Princeton University.

Sidhya Balakrishnan, Jain Family Institute

Sidhya Balakrishnan is the Director of Research at Jain Family Institute. She leads the research initiatives in Income Share Agreements and Guaranteed Income.

Rachel Black, Associate Director of the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program.

Rachel Black is an Associate Director of the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program. Previously, she was a research fellow with the Jain Family Institute where she managed the Newark Guaranteed Income Task Force and was the lead author on the Task Force report, Building Financial Security: Newark’s Roadmap Toward a Guaranteed Income. As part of this work, she led a collaboration with Springboard to Opportunities in Jackson, MS around the policy report,Becoming Visible; Race, Economic Security, and Political Voice in Jackson, MS, This report was deeply informed by interviews and focus groups with women living in public housing in Jackson, and culminated with a set of recommendations, including advancement of a guaranteed income.