Finland has become the first European country to implement a basic income. In a small experiment, 2,000 of the around 213,000 people in the country who are currently unemployed have been selected to receive 560 euros (about $587) a month as part of their benefits package, according to the Guardian.

The aim of the experiment is to see whether guaranteeing a baseline income for people without jobs will spur them back to work. Finland’s unemployment benefits provide enough for people to get by without working—and they can be revoked if someone takes even a low-paying or temporary job.

Under the new plan, people who are selected will not get any extra money; the 560 euros will replace part of what they already receive. But they will continue to receive the stipend, no strings attached, even if they get a job.

Olli Kangas is research director for the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, the agency conducting the country's experiment in basic income.

These kind of tests have become popular lately—the startup incubator Y Combinator is planning an experiment with 100 families, and there are others in the works in the Netherlands and Canada.

But there are several problems with them. The first and most obvious is that they’re expensive. Y Combinator says it will give away $2,000 a month, which may be why the cohort for the “short-term” pilot project is so tiny, though Y Combinator has said it plans to follow up with a longer-term experiment if the first one “goes well.” Scaling that up would require nontrivial amounts of money.