Resources

Click here for Scott Santens’ list of Basic Income books.

Books listed below are in release order, with the most recent at the top. The list is incomplete.

2025

• Zoe Staines, Securing Women’s Economic Security, Safety, and Freedom, 25 June 2025.
• Geoff Crocker, Rethinking Income and Money, Incorporating Technology into Economic Theory, 17 May 2025.

2024

• Sara Bernard, Basic Income for Disasters and Climate Change in Africa , Routledge Studies in African Development, 7 Nov 2024
• Karl Widerquist, Universal Basic Income, The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, 20 Feb 2024
• Malcolm Torry, Unconditional: Towards unconditionality in social policy, 9 Jan 2024

2023

• Malcolm Torry, The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income, Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, 21 Oct 2023
• Annie Miller, Basic Income, A Short Guide, 1 Aug 2023.
  See BIEN book review.
• Karl Widerquist, The Problem of Property: Taking the Freedom of Nonowners Seriously , Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, 1 Jan 2023

2022

• Jurgen De Wispelaere and Evelyn L Forget , Basic Income Experiments: Theory, Practice and Politics, 1 Dec 2022
• Malcolm Torry, Basic Income—What, Why, and How?: Aspects of the Global Basic Income Debate (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee), 25 Oct 2022
• Baljinder Sharma, Quest for Dignity: The Right to Basic Income, 12 Jan 2022

2021

• Malcolm Torry, A Modern Guide to Citizen’s Basic Income: A Multidisciplinary Approach, (Elgar Modern Guides), 31 Dec 2021.
• Scott Santens, Let there be Money, Understanding Modern Monetary Theory and Basic Income, 13 Dec 2021.
• Malcolm Torry, Basic Income: A History, 30 Sep 2021.

2020

• Annie Miller, Essentials of Basic Income, 24 July 2020
• Annie Miller, Basic Income, Pocket Book, 24 July 2020. 
• Geoff Crocker. Basic Income and Sovereign Money – The Alternative to Economic Crisis and Austerity Policy, 21 Feb 2020.

Before 2020

• Louise Haagh, The Case for Universal Basic Income, Polity, 2019.
• Malcolm Torry, Why we need a Citizen’s Basic Income: The desirability, feasibility and implementation of an unconditional income, Policy Press, 2018
• Annie Miller, A Basic Income Handbook, 31 July 2017.
  See BIEN book review – scroll down on the BIEN page to see.
• Guy Standing, Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen, May 2017.   
• Philippe van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght, Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy, April 2017.   
• Rutger Bregman, Utopia For Realists And How We Can Get There, 2017 English Ed.,2014 Dutch Ed. 
• Malcolm Torry, The Feasibility of Citizen’s Income, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
•  NZ  J Mays, G Marston, and J Tomlinson, eds. Basic Income in Australia and New Zealand: Perspectives from the Neoliberal Frontier, 2016. Includes essays by Keith Rankin and Susan St John.   
• Guy Standing, Sarath Davala, Renana Jhabvala, & Soumya Kapoor Mehta, Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India, 2015. 
• Malcolm Torry, 101 Reasons For A Citizen’s Income – Arguments for giving everyone some money, 2015.
• James Ferguson, Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution, 2015.   
• Guy Standing, A Precariat Charter, 2014.   
• Karl Wilderquist et. al Eds. (2013), Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research.   
• Matthew C. Murray & Carole Pateman Eds. (2012), Basic Income Worldwide: Horizons of Reform.   
• .Loek Groot (2012, Basic Income, Unemployment and Compensatory Justice.  
• Guy Standing (2011), The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class.  
•  NZ  Gareth Morgan & Susan Guthrie (2011). The Big Kahuna: Turning Tax & Welfare In New Zealand On Its Head.
• Antony Barnes Atkinson (1995), Public Economics in Action.   
• Walter van Trier (1995), Every One a King: An Investigation into the Meaning and Significance of the Debate on Basic Incomes with Special Reference to Three Episodes from the British Inter-War Experience. 
• Thomas Paine (1796), Agrarian Justice. See also: Wikipedia: Agrarian Justice.   

•  NZ  Craig Elliffe, NZ’s tax system is not progressive – where to from here? 28 April 2023, University of Auckland
•  NZ  New research into effective average tax rates and the distribution of wealth, NZ Treasury, 26 April 2023
  • Benjamin Ching, Tax and Transfer Progressivity in New Zealand: Part 1 Methodology
  • Benjamin Ching, Chelsey Reid and Luke Symes, Tax and Transfer Progressivity in New Zealand: Part 2 Results
  • Benjamin Ching, Tayla Forward and Oscar Parkyn, Estimating the Distribution of Wealth in New Zealand
•  NZ  Hon David Parker, IRD report shows wealthy NZers pay much lower tax rates than other earners, 26 April 2023, Beehive.gov.nz . Read the IRD summary.

• Karl Karl Widerquist, The Deep and Enduring History of Universal Basic Income, MIT , Press Reader, 7 Mar 2024
•  NZ  Te Utu Tika Hei Oranga i Aotearoa – Basic Income New Zealand Incorporated, Submission to the Productivity Commission, Improving New Zealand’s Economic Resilience, New Zealand Productivity Commission, 17 Apr 2023. See also submission regarding Technology and the Future of Work, Basic Income NZ, February 2020.
•  NZ  Iain Middleton, Realising a Basic Income, Sep 2022 – Apr 2023, BIEN Congress, University of Brisbane, September 2022.
•  NZ  Susan St John, ‘Basic Income’ for the old and the young in New Zealand, Economic Policy Centre, University of Auckland Business School, November 2022. 
•  NZ  Iain Middleton, Basic Income: A means to combat the marginalisation of vulnerable workers in precarious employment, Jan 2018 – Apr 2022.
• Scott Santens, Why We Need Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and Why It Needs Universal Basic Income (UBI), 2021, The Swamp.
• Max Ghenis, What we learned about basic income in 2019, The UBI Centre, 1 Jan 2020.
• Open Democracy, September 2019, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery. Universal Basic Income: a way through the storm? Five contributions.
•  NZ  Basic Income New Zealand, submission to the Productivity Commission regarding Technology and the Future of Work, Basic Income NZ, February 2020.
•  NZ  Perce Harpham, submission Technology and the future of work, New Zealand Productivity Commission, 23 April 2019.
•  NZ  Pii-Tuulia Nikula, Introducing a Universal Basic Income in New Zealand – Insights from the Finnish Trial? Briefing Papers, 26 July 2017.
• David Calnitsky, Canadian Review of Sociology – 18 Feb 2016, “More Normal than Welfare”: The Mincome Experiment, Stigma, and Community Experience. 
•  NZ  Susan St John, Improving the affordability of New Zealand Superannuation, Retirement Policy and Research Centre, Economics Department, Business School, The University of Auckland – Feb 2015. This paper shows how changing NZ superannuation recipients to a flat tax will improve the targeting and lower the cost of the scheme.
• Simon Clark, AVINUS Magazin – 2008, A basic income for Russia?
• Pavlina R. Tcherneva, International Journal of Environment Workplace and Employment 2(1)  – Jan 2006,   Universal assurances in the public interest: evaluating the economic viability of basic income and job guarantees,   
• J.E. King & John Marangos, History of Economic Ideas, XIV/2006/1 – 2006, Two Arguments for Basic Income: Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and Thomas Spence (1750-1814) 
• Ingrid Roebyns, Analyse & Kritik, 23(1): 88-105) – Jan 2001, Will a basic income do justice to women? 
•  NZ  Keith Rankin, Universal Basic Income Conference, Wellington, March 1998. Universal Basic Income: a System of Tax Reform.
• Charles Clark and Catherine Kavanagh, Journal of Economic Issues June 1996, “Basic Income, Inequality, and Unemployment“.
• Brian Burkitt & Francis Hutchinson, International Issue for Social Economics 21(1): 19-28  February 1994, Major Douglas’ Proposal for a National Dividend.

•  NZ  Susan St John, newsroom, University of Auckland, 5 August 2025, Why we should take $3b off top end of Super.
•  NZ  Keith Rankin, Scoop, 17 July 2023, Income Tax And Common-Sense: The Aotearoa New Zealand Case.
•  NZ  Frances Cook, New Zealand Herald, 16 July 2020, Cooking the Books: How would a universal basic income work in NZ? With podcast. 
• Rutger Bregman, The Correspondent, 2 April 2020, Has the time finally come for universal basic income? 
• Gwynne Dyer, the Japan Times – March 28, 2020, Why nobody mentions universal basic income.
•  NZ  Jenesa Jaram,  2 March 2020, The Spinoff, Is NZ Super sustainable? The truth is, economists don’t know.
• Guy Standing, Open Democracy – September 2019, Basic income and the three varieties of freedom – Freedom costs money.
• Richard Partington, The Guardian – March 18, 2019, Universal basic income ‘would cost less than value of benefit cuts since 2010’.
• Guy Standing, World Economic Forum, 17 January 2019, What has a year of experiments taught us about basic income?
•  NZ  Jenesa Jaram,  18 Dec 2018, The Spinoff, Stop telling young people NZ Super is unaffordable. NZ Initiative. 
• Toru Yamamori, UN Secretary-General endorses UBI, BIEN, 26 September 2018. Links to a Video.
• Elizaveta Fouksman, World Economic Forum, 15 August 2018, Universal basic income costs far less than you might think. Here’s why.
•  NZ  Jenna Lynch, Newshub – 3 August 2018, Treasury officials recommend Government look at universal basic income.
• Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, July 9 &16, 2018, Who Really Stands to Win from Universal Basic Income?
• Rutger Bregman, World Economic Forum, 29 May 2018, Don’t believe in a universal basic income? This is why it would work, and how we can pay for it.
• Anthony Painter, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, (RSA) – 16th February 2018, Pathways Towards Economic Security and Universal Basic Income. 
• Ellie Mae O’Hagan, The Guardian – June 23, 2017, Love the idea of a universal basic income? Be careful what you wish for. 
• Ceri Parker, World Economic Forum, 29 May 2017, Mark Zuckerberg – ‘We should explore universal basic incomes’.
• Chris Weller, Business Insider UK – October 12, 2016, President Obama: We’ll be debating unconditional free money ‘over the next 10 to 20 years’. 
•  NZ  Susan St John, interest.co.nz – May 17, 2016, Rethinking retirement income doesn’t require superpowers. 
•  NZ  Dan Satherley, Newshub – March 23, 2016, The Case for a Universal Basic Income. 
•  NZ  Steve Hart, Weekend Herald – January 18, 2016, The benefits of a universal income.  
• Brian Stewart, CBC News – June 1, 2015, Rise of the ‘precariat,’ the global scourge of precarious jobs.  
•  NZ   Rajesh Makwana, Scoop – March 22, 2015, From Basic Income To Social Dividends: Sharing The Value Of Common Resources.
• Guy Standing, The Guardian – December 18, 2014, Basic income paid to the poor can transform lives. 
•  NZ  Gill Caradoc-Davies, Otago Daily Times – April 14, 2014, Urgent need to alter NZ’s wealth.  
• Matthew Timms, World Finance – March 18, 2014, Will unconditional basic income solve Europe’s problems? 
• Post-Capitalism: Rise of the Collaborative Commons – The Revolution will not be Centralized.
  An interesting article in its own right, with a section on UBI about 3/4 of the way through.

• Scott Santens, Universal Basic Income Guide
• Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Blog, 3 October 2017, How to Fund a Universal Basic Income Without Increasing Taxes or Inflation.
• Simon Thorpe’s Ideas on the Economy: Science and the Unconditional Basic Income (31 May 2015)
• Tim Harford, A universal income is not such a silly idea (27 Nov 2013). 

• The 25 best Basic Income videos on YouTube
• Over one thousand Basic Income videos on YouTube

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• openDemocracy, 1 Dec 2019, Universal Basic Income: the power to say ‘no’, for everyone
• TEDx Lake Como, Guy Standing, 18 Dec 2018, Basic income: utopia or solution? 
• TEDx Hyderabad, Dr Vikas Singh, 29 Oct 2018, Universal Basic Income in India
•  NZ  RNZ Interview with Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw, 22 Jun 2017, The pros and cons of a UBI 
• Kurzesagt – In a Nutshell, 8 Jun 2017, The Rise of the Machines – Why Automation is Different this Time
• TEDx University of Rochester, Susan Danziger, 2 Jun 2017, Understanding Universal Basic Income, 
•  NZ  University of Otago Seminar with Prof. Philip Nel, Dr Murat Ungor, &  Lowell Manning, 5 Apr 2017, 
  ‘The BIG idea whose time has come: A basic income grant for all?’
•  NZ  Radio LIVE Interview with Dr Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy, University of Auckland, 27 Mar 2017, Should NZ introduce a universal basic income? 
• Huffington Post Interview with Max Harris, 23 Mar 2017, Universal basic income could actually work, here’s how 
• TEDx Indor, ASTHA KAPOOR,  23 Mar 2017, Experiment with Universal Basic Income: From idea to implementation. 
• World Economic Forum, 19 January 2017, A Basic Income for All: Dream or Delusion?    
•  NZ  TEDx Christchurch, Raf Manji, 12 Dec 2016, A Universal Income needs a focus on citizen Responsibility
•  NZ  RNZ Interview with Raf Manji, 14 Nov 2016,  Is UBI an idea whose time has come? 
•  NZ  RNZ Interview with Kathryn Myronuk, 7 Sep 2016, The Technological Advances Shaping Our Future  
• RT Question More, Max Keiser with Stacy Herbert and Guy Standing, 1 Aug 2015, The Keiser Report 791 
• Films for Action, Whitney Mallett, 10 Feb 2015, The Town Where Everyone Got Free Money 
• TEDx Maastricht, Rutger Bregman, 21 Oct 2014, Why we should give everyone a basic income  
• Films for Action, David DeGraw, 7 Sep 2014, The Economics of Revolution & Universal Basic Income
• Films for Action, Andrew Dolan, 1 Apr 2014, 7 Reasons The Universal Basic Income Is Worth Fighting For 

• BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) Home page
• BIEN – List of congress papers and links to the papers from 1998
• BIEN – Congress 2019.  This congress was attended by a delegation from Basic Income New Zealand  
• BIEN – past congress papers 
• Economists of interest or showing the viability of a universal income system:
  • James Tobin, (1918 – 2002).
  • Jan Tinbergen, (1903 – 1994)
  • Herbet A. Simon,  (1916 – 2001). 
  • James Meade,  (1907 – 1995). 
• P2P Foundation  
• Queensland University of Technology website, School of Public Health and Social Work – Basic Income   
• Wikipedia, Basic Income         
• Wikipedia, List of Basic Income Models.

………………………………………….

•  NZ  New Zealand Superannuation. New Zealand Superannuation is a Basic Income paid to those over 65 but paid at three different rates to allow for accommodation arrangements. The three rates are: in a relationship, single and sharing accommodation, and single and living alone.
•  NZ  New Zealand Child Benefit. From 1946 until 1985 New Zealand paid a child benefit for every child. This was a Basic Income. 
• Alaska Permanent Fund.
• Iran Unconditional Cash Transfer System – see Djavad Salehi-Isfahani and Mohammad H. Mostafavi-Dehzooei, May 2017: Cash Transfers and Labour Supply: Evidence from a Large-Scale Program in Iran. 

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Submissions advocating Basic Income

• NZ 2025, Review of Retirement Income Policies Submission to the Retirement Commission from Te Utu Tika Hei Oranga i Aotearoa – Basic Income NZ, 28 June 2025.
• NZ 2024, Submission on the Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill to the Parliamentary Justice Select Committee, from the Humanist Society of NZ Incorporated, 2 Sep 2024. This submission suggests that providing a Basic Income will reduce crime and is a better alternative to punitive legislation.
• NZ 2023, Improving New Zealand’s Economic Resilience Submission to the Productivity Commission from Te Utu Tika Hei Oranga i Aotearoa – Basic Income New Zealand Incorporated, 17 Apr 2023.
• NZ 2020, Technological change and the Future of Work Submission to the Productivity Commission from Basic Income New Zealand, February 2020.
• NZ 2018, Public Submission to Tax Working Group, from Iain Middleton, 30 April 2018. Attached paper.
• NZ 2018, Public Submission to Tax Working Group, from Paul Wernham, 30 April 2018.