Universal basic income in a post-pandemic world

Resources for a reasonable guaranteed basic income may be within the realm of fiscal feasibility even for poor countries

In coping with the dire economic crisis in the wake of the pandemic, many developing countries have resorted to cash assistance to the poor for immediate relief. Beyond the relief aspect, many macro-economists have also pointed to the need for such programmes to boost mass consumer demand in a period of one of the deepest slumps of general economic activity in decades. As I have been an advocate for universal basic income (UBI) in poor countries for more than a decade now — my first published paper on the subject came out in India in March 2011 in the Economic