A Research Agenda for Basic Income

Elgar Research Agendas

Malcolm Torry, Visiting Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath, previously Senior Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics, Treasurer, Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), former Director, Citizen's Basic Income Trust. He is a Priest in the Church of England and currently Priest in Charge of St Mary Abchurch, City of London, UK

Highlighting the diversity and complexity of the global Basic Income debate, Malcolm Torry assesses the history, current state, and future of research in this important field. Each chapter offers a concise history of a particular subfield of Basic Income research, describes the current state of research in that area, and makes proposals for the research required if the increasingly widespread global debate on Basic Income is to be constructive.

‘The idea of an unconditional Basic Income is now discussed all over the world and it raises many questions, sociological and political as well as economic and administrative. Some of them are universal, others are country-specific. In the process of identifying the most important unanswered questions, Malcolm Torry provides a lucid, splendidly informed overview of what we currently know about the many versions of Basic Income and their likely effects.’
– Philippe Van Parijs, University of Louvain, Belgium and Basic Income Earth Network

‘Malcolm Torry’s knowledge of Basic Income research is encyclopaedic and probably unrivalled. Supporters and detractors of Basic Income alike will find much to stimulate new research enquiries in his latest work, which artfully navigates the varied outputs of the host of different disciplines now engaged in Basic Income studies. It combines conceptual clarity with a practical orientation to reform.’
– Nick Pearce, University of Bath, UK