IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bistud/v14y2019i1p15n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Universal Basic Income and the Natural Environment: Theory and Policy

Author

Listed:
  • MacNeill Timothy

    (Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario, CanadaL1H 7K4)

  • Vibert Amber

    (Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario, CanadaL1H 7K4)

Abstract

We analyze the environmental implications of basic income programs through literature review, government documents, pilot studies, and interviews eliciting expert knowledge. We consider existing knowledge and then use a grounded approach to produce theory on the relationship between a basic income guarantee and environmental protection/damage. We find that very little empirical or theoretical work has been done on this relationship and that theoretical arguments can be made for both positive and negative environmental impacts. Ultimately, this implies, the environmental impact of a basic income program will be dependent on program design. These insights allow us to generate a toolkit of policy proposals to assist in the development of green basic income programs via either conditions, additions, or complements.

Suggested Citation

  • MacNeill Timothy & Vibert Amber, 2019. "Universal Basic Income and the Natural Environment: Theory and Policy," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bistud:v:14:y:2019:i:1:p:15:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/bis-2018-0026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bis-2018-0026
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bis-2018-0026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klaus Hubacek & Giovanni Baiocchi & Kuishuang Feng & Anand Patwardhan, 2017. "Poverty eradication in a carbon constrained world," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Nailya Ordabayeva & Pierre Chandon, 2011. "Getting Ahead of the Joneses: When Equality Increases Conspicuous Consumption among Bottom-Tier Consumers," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 27-41.
    3. Alves-Pinto, Helena Nery & Hawes, Joseph E. & Newton, Peter & Feltran-Barbieri, Rafael & Peres, Carlos A., 2018. "Economic Impacts of Payments for Environmental Services on Livelihoods of Agro-extractivist Communities in the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 378-388.
    4. Fitzpatrick Tony, 2010. "Basic Income, Post-Productivism and Liberalism," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-11, September.
    5. Van Parijs Philippe, 2010. "Political Ecology: From Autonomous Sphere to Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-9, September.
    6. Boulanger Paul-Marie, 2010. "Basic Income and Sustainable Consumption Strategies," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-11, September.
    7. Jörg Peters & Jörg Langbein & Gareth Roberts, 2018. "Generalization in the Tropics – Development Policy, Randomized Controlled Trials, and External Validity," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 34-64.
    8. Scruggs, Lyle A., 1998. "Political and economic inequality and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 259-275, September.
    9. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    10. Andersson Jan Otto, 2010. "Basic Income From an Ecological Perspective," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-8, September.
    11. Christopher Carroll & Jiri Slacalek & Kiichi Tokuoka & Matthew N. White, 2017. "The distribution of wealth and the marginal propensity to consume," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(3), pages 977-1020, November.
    12. Chang-Tai Hsieh, 2003. "Do Consumers React to Anticipated Income Changes? Evidence from the Alaska Permanent Fund," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 397-405, March.
    13. Birnbaum Simon, 2010. "Introduction: Basic Income, Sustainability and Post-Productivism," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-7, September.
    14. Schwarzer, Helmut, & Panhuys, Clara van. & Diekmann, Katharina., 2016. "Protecting people and the environment lessons learnt from Brazil's Bolsa Verde, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, South Africa and 56 other experiences," ILO Working Papers 995164592002676, International Labour Organization.
    15. Evelyn L. Forget, 2011. "The Town with No Poverty: The Health Effects of a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income Field Experiment," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 37(3), pages 283-305, September.
    16. Schwarzer, Helmut, & Van Panhuys, Clara. & Diekmann, Katharina., 2016. "Protecting people and the environment : lessons learnt from Brazil's Bolsa Verde, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, South Africa and 56 other experiences," ILO Working Papers 994903813402676, International Labour Organization.
    17. Karl Widerquist, 2018. "A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-03849-6, March.
    18. Boyce, James K., 1994. "Inequality as a cause of environmental degradation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 169-178, December.
    19. James Boyce, 1994. "Inequality as a Cause of Environmental Degradation," Published Studies ps1, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    20. Scott Goldsmith, 2012. "The Economic and Social Impacts of the Permanent Fund Dividend on Alaska," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: Karl Widerquist & Michael W. Howard (ed.), Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend, chapter 0, pages 49-63, Palgrave Macmillan.
    21. Calder Gideon, 2010. "Mobility, Inclusion and the Green Case for Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-10, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mumbunan, Sonny & Maitri, Ni Made Rahayu, 2022. "A Review of Basic Income for Nature and Climate," OSF Preprints bre43, Center for Open Science.
    2. Pinto Jorge, 2020. "Environmentalism, Ecologism, and Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, June.
    3. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2020. "Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-30, January.
    4. Usman Mehmood & Ephraim Bonah Agyekum & Salman Tariq & Zia Ul Haq & Solomon Eghosa Uhunamure & Joshua Nosa Edokpayi & Ayesha Azhar, 2022. "Socio-Economic Drivers of Renewable Energy: Empirical Evidence from BRICS," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-10, April.
    5. Soumen Rej & Barnali Nag & Md. Emran Hossain, 2024. "Foreign Direct Investment, Income Inequality and Pollution Reduction: Policy Trilemma for India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 221-248, August.
    6. Alexandre BERTHE & Luc ELIE, 2014. "Les conséquences environnementales des inégalités économiques : structuration théorique et perspectives de recherche (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2014-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    7. Sulhi Ridzuan, 2024. "Income redistribution and carbon emissions in Portugal," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 23(3), pages 421-437, September.
    8. Andersson, Fredrik N.G., 2023. "Income inequality and carbon emissions in the United States 1929–2019," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    9. Alassane Drabo, 2011. "Impact of Income Inequality on Health: Does Environment Quality Matter?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 146-165, January.
    10. Dorn, Franziska & Maxand, Simone & Kneib, Thomas, 2024. "The nonlinear dependence of income inequality and carbon emissions: Potentials for a sustainable future," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    11. Nicolli, Francesco & Gilli, Marianna & Vona, Francesco, 2022. "Inequality and Climate Change: Two Problems, One Solution?," FEEM Working Papers 329340, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    12. Simona-Roxana Ulman & Costica Mihai & Cristina Cautisanu, 2020. "Peculiarities of the Relation between Human and Environmental Wellbeing in Different Stages of National Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-26, October.
    13. Cantos, José Mª & Balsalobre Lorente, Daniel, 2011. "Las energías renovables en la Curva de Kuznets Ambiental: Una aplicación para España/Renewable Energy in the Environmental Kuznets Curve: An Application to Spain," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 29, pages 667(32.)-66, Agosto.
    14. Obadiah Jonathan Gimba & Abdulkareem Alhassan & Huseyin Ozdeser & Wafa Ghardallou & Mehdi Seraj & Ojonugwa Usman, 2023. "Towards low carbon and sustainable environment: does income inequality mitigate ecological footprints in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 10425-10445, September.
    15. James Boyce, 2003. "Inequality and Environmental Protection," Working Papers wp52, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    16. Liu, Qianqian & Wang, Shaojian & Zhang, Wenzhong & Li, Jiaming & Kong, Yunlong, 2019. "Examining the effects of income inequality on CO2 emissions: Evidence from non-spatial and spatial perspectives," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 163-171.
    17. Bo Yang & Minhaj Ali & Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Mohsin Shabir, 2020. "Income Inequality and CO 2 Emissions in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Instability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    18. Fateh Belaïd, Sabri Boubaker, Rajwane Kafrouni, 2020. "Carbon emissions, income inequality and environmental degradation: the case of Mediterranean countries," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 17(1), pages 73-102, June.
    19. Lujing Wang & Ming Zhang, 2021. "Exploring the impact of narrowing urban-rural income gap on carbon emission reduction and pollution control," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-16, November.
    20. Vona, Francesco & Patriarca, Fabrizio, 2011. "Income inequality and the development of environmental technologies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2201-2213, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bistud:v:14:y:2019:i:1:p:15:n:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.