IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iaf/journl/y2024i2p150-163.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To UBI or Not to UBI? Universal Basic Income Creating Value in Rural Areas of Romania

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandru Ureche

    (Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

People below the poverty line need financial support to meet their basic needs. One type of support is Universal Basic Income (UBI), which is paid to all adults individually, without means-test or work requirement. This paper investigates the effectiveness of basic-income social policies in rural areas of Romania. The author has analyzed possibly the longest-running Universal Basic Income program created by a non-governmental organization. This social experiment has been running for more than fifteen years and counting. Once a thriving bulwark of socio-economic stability in the country, rural areas grapple for decades with the tsunami effect of ill-fated socio-economic reforms of the '90s, which dragged the rural economy and its people into a vicious cycle of poverty. Constant economic migration, depopulation, lack of basic needs, and a generation of orphans - the byproduct of economic migration and lack of education - constitute the new dire reality of a once prosperous blend of small economies. Under these circumstances, providing unconditional guaranteed income, independent of any other revenue streams, seems a natural way to alleviate the effects of systemic, multidimensional poverty. With mostly non-existent government programs and a weak business sector, the responsibility for such targeted interventions rests on the shoulders of third-sector organizations. The study's results prove that such programs' impact and benefits far outweigh their monetary costs and the stigma associated with "social welfare" proposals. Reframing the concept of UBI allows for creating more perfect baselines, a better way of measuring the needs, and means to fulfil these needs more effectively. This, in turn, drives the creation of a more powerful (and meaningful) set of tools for assessing these needs to meet the demand adequately.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandru Ureche, 2024. "To UBI or Not to UBI? Universal Basic Income Creating Value in Rural Areas of Romania," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 2, pages 150-163, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:iaf:journl:y:2024:i:2:p:150-163
    DOI: 10.33146/2307-9878-2024-2(104)-150-163
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afj.org.ua/pdf/1073-ubi-chi-ne-ubi-universalniy-bazoviy-dohid-stvoryue-cinnist-u-silskiy-miscevosti-rumunii.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.afj.org.ua/en/article/1073/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.33146/2307-9878-2024-2(104)-150-163?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alkire, Sabina & Apablaza, Mauricio & Chakravarty, Satya & Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2017. "Measuring chronic multidimensional poverty," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 983-1006.
    2. Bebbington, Jan & Brown, Judy & Frame, Bob, 2007. "Accounting technologies and sustainability assessment models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 224-236, March.
    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. Olivier Boiral & Marie‐Christine Brotherton & Léo Rivaud & David Talbot, 2022. "Comparing the uncomparable? An investigation of car manufacturers' climate performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2213-2229, July.
    2. Davide Giacomini & Paola Zola & Diego Paredi & Mario Mazzoleni, 2020. "Environmental disclosure and stakeholder engagement via social media: State of the art and potential in public utilities," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1552-1564, July.
    3. Figge, Frank & Hahn, Tobias & Barkemeyer, Ralf, 2014. "The If, How and Where of assessing sustainable resource use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 274-283.
    4. Blackburn, Nivea & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse & Hooper, Val, 2014. "A dialogical framing of AIS–SEA design," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 83-101.
    5. Chen, Dan & Webber, Michael & Chen, Jing & Luo, Zhaohui, 2011. "Emergy evaluation perspectives of an irrigation improvement project proposal in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2154-2162, September.
    6. Frame, Bob & Brown, Judy, 2008. "Developing post-normal technologies for sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 225-241, April.
    7. Songmao Wang & Yingzhi Guo & Zhaoli He, 2023. "Analysis on the Measurement and Dynamic Evolution of Multidimensional Return to Poverty in Chinese Rural Households," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 31-52, January.
    8. Marta Solórzano-García & Julio Navío-Marco & Luis Manuel Ruiz-Gómez, 2019. "Ambiguity in the Attribution of Social Impact: A Study of the Difficulties of Calculating Filter Coefficients in the SROI Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Qun Wang & Lu Shu & Xiaojun Lu, 2023. "Dynamics of multidimensional poverty and its determinants among the middle-aged and older adults in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Van Passel, Steven, 2008. "Assessing farm sustainability with value oriented methods," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44141, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Clayton Alexandra F. & Rogerson Jayne M. & Rampedi Isaac, 2015. "Integrated reporting vs. sustainability reporting for corporate responsibility in South Africa," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 29(29), pages 7-17, September.
    12. Henrietta A. Asiamah, 2021. "Childhood Chronic Poverty Estimations: Looking Beyond a Count Index," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(1), pages 185-215, February.
    13. Dika, Galgalo & Tolossa, Degefa & Eyana, Shiferaw Muleta, 2021. "Multidimensional poverty of pastoralists and implications for policy in Boorana rangeland system, Southern Ethiopia," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    14. Yuan Li Liu & Kai Zhu & Qi Yao Chen & Jing Li & Jin Cai & Tian He & He Ping Liao, 2021. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Farm Households’ Vulnerability to Multidimensional Poverty in Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Büyüközkan, Gülçin & Karabulut, Yağmur & Mukul, Esin, 2018. "A novel renewable energy selection model for United Nations' sustainable development goals," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PA), pages 290-302.
    16. Akrum Helfaya & Tantawy Moussa, 2017. "Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1061-1077, December.
    17. Büyüközkan, Gülçin & Karabulut, Yağmur, 2017. "Energy project performance evaluation with sustainability perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 549-560.
    18. Xing, Yangang & Horner, R. Malcolm W. & El-Haram, Mohamed A. & Bebbington, Jan, 2009. "A framework model for assessing sustainability impacts of urban development," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 209-224.
    19. Olaf Weber, 2012. "Environmental Credit Risk Management in Banks and Financial Service Institutions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 248-263, May.
    20. Narayanan, Venkateshwaran & Baird, Kevin & Tay, Richard, 2021. "Investment decisions: The trade-off between economic and environmental objectives," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Universal Basic Income; multidimensional poverty; basic-income policies; blended value accounting; (in)commensuration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • R51 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iaf:journl:y:2024:i:2:p:150-163. 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: Serhiy Ostapchuk (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iafkvua.html .

    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.