Preliminary results of the basic income experiment, which the Finnish government implemented in 2017-2018, was presented at Säätytalo, “House of the Estates” (Snellmaninkatu 9-11, Helsinki), on Friday, 8th February 2019, as we reported previously.

Olli Kangas, scientific leader of the study and Professor of Practice at the University of Turku, summed up the result concisely when he was asked by a journalist:

No significant effects on employment, but important effects on well-being.

At the event, Kangas gave an overview of the preliminary finding; Ohto Kanninen, research coordinator at the Labour Institute for Economic Research, spoke on the effects on employment; and Minna Ylikännö, senior researher at Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, presented on the effects on well-being.

The event can be watched online here, and the summary can be read here.

The final results will be published in 2020.

For what the experiment can and cannot tell us, this piece and literature mentioned in the piece could be helpful. For literature on other experiments, this page might be a good starting point.

Photo: Sauna in Helsinki, CC BY-NC 2.0 Piltti.

Article reviewed by Russell Ingram.