TL;DR: Unconditional cash ‘smooths that income volatility.’

Studies are “indicating pretty uniformly positive impacts on health, belonging, self-worth, among other outcomes,” said Sean Kline, director of the Stanford Basic Income Lab.

A recent report on a St. Paul, Minn. program from The Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania found that the proportion of people who were employed increased and continued to rise six months after the program ended. People felt more hopeful about the future, and those feelings remained six months after.