February 2023

IZA DP No. 15976: The Employment Effects of Generous and Unconditional Cash Support

Timo Verlaat, Federico Todeschini, Xavier Ramos

published as 'The employment effects of a means-tested guaranteed income policy' in: Journal of Public Economics, 2025, 248, 105420

While unconditional cash transfers have been studied extensively in developing countries, little is known about their effects in a wealthier context. Through a randomized controlled trial, we study the employment effects of a generous and unconditional transfer targeting low-income families in Spain. Two years into the program, subjects assigned to treatment are 20 percent less likely to work than subjects assigned to a control group. Assignment to an activation plan does not attenuate adverse effects; a more lenient transfer withdrawal rate does. It appears that effects are driven by subjects with children, suggesting substitution of labour for care tasks.