A recent study confirms that universal basic income—no-strings-attached benefit checks offered to recipients regardless of need or contribution to the program—discourages work. That’s relevant to the presidential race. Kamala Harris has called more than once for paying UBI-like benefits.
Participants in the UBI program worked nearly 1½ hours less a week on average, and unemployment rose. Other adults in recipient households reduced their work effort, too. Overall, the study found for every dollar in benefits, “total household income excluding the transfers fell by at least 21 cents.”
As vice president, Ms. Harris cast the deciding vote to create a temporary UBI for parents through a significantly expanded child tax credit in 2021. Tens of millions of households collected these payments, which grew to as much as $3,600 a child, even as the program’s work requirement and work incentive features were suspended. A University of Chicago study calculated that if the change were made permanent, it would result in 1.5 million parents exiting the labor force. But the temporary policy lapsed when Sen. Joe Manchin refused to support its extension without a work requirement. The administration’s fiscal 2025 budget would revive the costly 2021 expansion, but they aren’t the only ones flirting with budget-busting proposals. On Sunday, Sen. J.D. Vance called for increasing the child tax credit to $5,000 and making it available to “all American families,” though he didn’t say whether he would make it conditional on work.