Chicago will soon learn whether its bid for Amazon’s second headquarters has won over the e-commerce conglomerate. But while it waits, the city has a chance to take a step that could do more for many low-income families than the location of Amazon's HQ2 here: Chicago could become the second city in the U.S.—and the first major metropolis—to host a “basic income” pilot program.

“HQ1” for basic income is Stockton, Calif., a struggling city 90 minutes east of San Francisco with roughly one-ninth Chicago’s population. Stockton's dynamic 28-year-old mayor has teamed up with private donors to provide 100 Stockton residents with $500 a month—roughly equal to the Census Bureau’s threshold for “deep poverty” for a single individual. The program aims to launch early next year.

Chicago’s bid to become the HQ2 for basic income is led by Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, who has introduced a resolution in the City Council calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to create a task force to develop a basic income pilot. Pawar’s resolution envisions a program that would provide $500 per month to 1,000 low-income Chicago families. Thirty-five other council members have signed on. Emanuel has yet to weigh in.

The mayor should move forward with the plan—for three reasons.

First, a pilot in Chicago could shed light on the potential effects of giving cash to low-income families with no strings attached. Evidence from elsewhere is encouraging. After the Eastern Cherokee tribe in North Carolina started to distribute roughly $4,000 per year in casino profits to tribal members in the mid-1990s, researchers observed an increase in school attendance and educational attainment as well as a drop in criminal arrests among children whose families received the payments. Adult tribal members were no less likely to work as a result of the additional money. A study of an earlier cash transfer program in a Canadian town found that dropout rates and hospitalization rates declined among cash recipients. A pilot here would show whether the results of these earlier studies can be replicated in a very different setting.

Second, the test need not cost the city government a cent. Stockton has committed to financing its demonstration project through private donations. Chicago’s program would be 10 times the size—and thus roughly 10 times the price—but Chicago is also home to a much larger and richer philanthropic community than Stockton is, and the high profile of a Chicago pilot would likely attract support from wealthy donors beyond the city who have expressed enthusiasm about basic income plans. The pilot would cost $6 million a year plus very modest overhead—a fraction of what some local nonprofits like the Art Institute of Chicago are able to raise. If the money doesn’t materialize, the project can be shelved. If it succeeds, then the city can evaluate the evidence and consider in the future whether to use taxpayer funds for a larger-scale permanent program.

Third, a basic income pilot in Chicago would bolster the city’s reputation as an innovation hub for social policy. Ever since Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull House in 1889, Chicago has attracted activists, philanthropists and social scientists seeking solutions to the problem of poverty and its consequences. A pilot here could re-establish Chicago as a city to which others look for policies that work. It also could engage economists and sociologists at the area’s leading universities, who would jump at the opportunity to study the effects of a basic income in their own back yard.

Is a basic income ultimately the best way to tackle the problem of poverty? Not all are convinced, and a 1,000-family pilot won’t resolve the debate. But it could generate useful data, and it has the potential to materially improve the lives of pilot program participants. Chicago should be eager to have it happen here.

Daniel Hemel is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

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