Bernhard Neumärker will welcome all participants on behalf of FRIBIS, and Valentin Seehausen will introduce the conference topic “monetary issues of a UBI”

This team researches the macroeconomic feasibility and implications of a basic income funded by debt-free sovereign money. This implies a new approach to government monetary and fiscal policy.

The team explores a revised economic theory of income, derived from an analysis of the changing structural sourcing of household income, using cross-sectional data from a number of country economies. The role of household debt in the income structure will be specifically analyzed. Basic income will then be proposed and tested in this changing income structure.

An exploration of the theory of money will examine claims that money is necessary debt, and derives its value from its acceptance to pay tax, compared to its acceptance to purchase goods and services.

The project methodology will include interactive engagement with academic economists, government economic officials, central banks, and economics think tanks. Existing and alternative models for funding flows will be developed, critiqued, and refined. The team will liaise with the macroeconomic and microeconomic simulation work based at IPR Bath, UK.

Simon März: Financing UBI through the federal fiscal equalisation scheme.
Team Expedition Grundeinkommen E.V.: Outlay of their work in lobbying for the funding of UBI model experiments in different cities in Germany.

UBI has received a lot of attention in recent years. Yet, for all of its potential there is very little to no cohesive research done on UBI, even much less so in Germany. This is why the Team Expedition Grundeinkommen E.V. has taken it upon itself to make exactly that happen. They toil to see the realization of government funded UBI model experiments in different major cities in Germany. Even though there is still a lot of work and challenges ahead of them, they have had remarkable success, especially in the German city states, and are convinced to see their efforts rewarded in the nearer future.

With the introduction of UBI experiments on a communal level, one question that always arises is the question of how a city can raise funds to fund a citywide UBI experiment. One proposed solution is often to simply raise new taxes. However, this is always much easier said than done. Another, and very feasible option, to fund communal UBI experiments, is the diverting of funds from the federal fiscal equalisation scheme in federalist countries towards paying for a communally run UBI experiment. Simon März will elaborate on the pros and cons, by closely examining the German federal fiscal equalisation system, of this funding possibility. He, furthermore, will dive into its feasibility and discuss different questions that arise with the realisation of such a funding option.

Today in one of the richest countries in the world, 60% of households in poverty have people in jobs, inequality is the highest it has been for 100 years, climate change threatens our extinction and automation means millions are forced into a life of precarity.

The solution? Basic Income. Here, Guy Standing, the leading expert on the concept, explains how to solve the new eight evils of modern life, and all for almost zero net cost. There is a better future, one that makes certain all citizens can share in the wealth of the modern economy.

Far from being a new idea, Standing shows how the roots of basic income go back to the Charter of the Forest, one of two foundational documents of the state — the other, sealed on the same day, being the Magna Carta.

All citizens have a right to the wealth created by capitalism, and all — left or right, rich or poor — can benefit from a dynamic and ecologically grounded economy created by the guarantee of subsistence to all.

This session will shed light on why it is important to collect data with UBI pilots and how this can be done. Young Seong Yoo from the Geyonggi Research Institute (GRI) will address some words on the importance of the collaboration of FRIBIS, GRI and other institutes under the name of BIRAL (Basic Income Research and Action Lab). In addition, he will ask why they use a local currency for distributing an UBI to more than 50,000 people. Andreu Honzawa will tell about a local currency in Kenya, which addresses a UBI from the perspective of a community currency.

This panel aims to address the Citizen’s Basic Income created in the city of
Maricá (Brazil). To achieve that end, geopolitical aspects of the Brazilian city are highlighted, and the genesis of the BI program is described, as well as its development since its creation in 2013. Besides, the importance of the program during the Covid-19 Pandemic is considered. Finally, some implications and related outcomes of this Basic Income case are brought up and open to debate. Catarina Neves will speak about “Obligations from the norm of reciprocity: Is a Unconditional Basic Income permissible?”. The abstract of her talk is as follows:

Assuming as given that distributive justice should be at least partly conditioned by cooperation, this presentation will start off by discussing a broader view of what the norm of reciprocity should entail: it will start off by considering reciprocity as a relational value, hence as constitutive of relationships between people. Secondly, it will consider how reciprocity might be seen as both civic and economic reciprocity (when it comes to relationships among people in a given political society). Whereas the first is about our obligations as citizens (abide by the law, vote and take part in political decisions), the second is about our obligations as economic agents, which might include trading and participating in the market, but also work and productive contribution. The first is usually considered to include the second, but it does not have to follow necessarily. Hence, our obligations as citizens do not necessarily need to include our contribution as productive agents (e.g. work, or performing productive contribution) and demanding it might be a contextual claim. Hence, the requirement

Finally, the presentation will close by discussing whether the concept of economic reciprocity is sound. By comparing reciprocity as a norm and social mechanism, with the concept of redistribution, the paper will close by arguing what we are claiming for when discussing economic reciprocity (e.g. demanding economic productive contribution from each individual) serves the purposes of redistribution, and not the demands of reciprocity, and hence it is governed by distinct mechanisms, and different claims, which are not incompatible, quite the opposite, with a claim for Unconditional Basic Income.

In our first panel discussion on October 12th we invited researchers that are highly involved in UBI pilots all over the world. They will present us findings from their field work and will then discuss the tool of UBI for development. Miriam Laker will present the last results of GiveDirectly which involve 10 RCT experiments, Louise Haagh will present her findings of the survey about economic security. Ugo Gentilini will join the discussion with a perspective from the World Bank.

The Network Analysis and Financial Diaries (NetFi) team researches complementary and community currencies that use an Unconditional Basic Income as a distribution mechanism. As a methodological team, NetFi develops, among other things, programs and procedures that can be used to research these currencies. It is currently developing three different software solutions for this purpose — including a program that can be used to analyze graph-based network data.

“Come and live in these boots first:” Leveraging lived experience to inform feminist basic income debates
Chloe Halpenny (Ottawa) is part of the research team of “UBI and Gender”. She is a social policy researcher at the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, and co-chair and co-founder of the Basic Income Canada Youth Network. In her presentation, she will share some of the findings from her MPhil research at the University of Cambridge, describing what the experiences of participants in the Ontario Basic Income Pilot bring to feminist debates about basic income.

Political and social UBI-movements in Germany and the EU
-this presentation will be held in German-
Ronald Blaschke (MUBINGO team) will give an informative lecture on the debates on basic income in various social movements as well as an overview of the positions of political parties in Germany and possibly, on the sidelines, a report on the European Citizens’ Initiative “Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) throughout the EU” (ECI UBI).

Grundeinkommen und Postwachstum
-this presentation will be held in German-
Grundeinkommen als ökonomische und soziale Basis-Sicherheit ist (auch) ein Kulturimpuls. Welche Zusammenhänge  könn(t)en reklamiert werden zwischen Grundeinkommen und Postwachstum?

In the final session we invite these renown UBI experts and experts on social protection to get to the heart of their view on funding a UBI.

What is most desirable, what is most feasible, what innovations in the monetary system offer new solutions?