A new report, ‘Technological change and growth regimes: Assessing the case for universal basic income (UBI) in an era of declining labour shares’, has been published by the University of Bath Institute for Policy Research (IPR).

The report, co-authored by Joe Chrisp, Aida Garcia-Lazaro and Nick Pearce, supported by funding from Geoff Crocker, examines to what extent the role of technological change is responsible for a decline in the labour share, and discusses the likely effects, and political feasibility, of policy solutions such as universal basic income (UBI).

Through their analysis, the report’s findings reveal that technological change is partly responsible for the decline in the labour share, and growth regimes do shape the conditions in which technology affects it. Their findings also reveal that broadly speaking, variants of a UBI – depending on age group, for instance - is a plausible policy solution, but should be tailored to the national context and specifically their growth regime.

Co-author, Joe Chrisp, adds:

"We hope that our analysis serves as a catalyst for thinking through how technological change, trends in labour share and their consequences on consumption, household debt and trade policy interact. We also hope it further informs the UBI debate by highlighting the importance of country’s growth regimes for the compatibility of different policy options. Proponents of a UBI in a given country may find it useful to consider how a variant of the policy can serve as a complement to the national growth regime.”