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The BIG Library: Books About Universal Basic Income (UBI)

Last Updated: April 30, 2024

People consider me an expert on the topic of basic income and so I’m frequently asked for book recommendations. Because of that, I’ve decided to put together a comprehensive list here on Medium which I will make a point of updating each year as new books are released and old books are discovered. If you don’t see a book here and think it should be listed, please let me know so I can add it.

Also, due to popular request, books of fiction that include basic income can be found at the end of this list. And if you’re looking for academic papers to read instead, there’s Basic Income Studies which is a peer-reviewed journal, and here’s a great list of discussion papers on basicincome.org and also usbig.net.

And if you’re looking for a UBI book written by me, this is my newest one:

Let There Be Money: Understanding Modern Monetary Theory and Basic Income

Note: List is ordered by release year chronological order

2025

Basic Income: The Policy That Changes Everything (And Why People Keep Getting It Wrong…) — https://amzn.to/3TMOqKJ

2024

A Radical Bargain for Europe: Progressive Visions of a European Basic Income — https://amzn.to/4999PlW

The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America's Next Economy

Universal Basic Income (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

Unconditional Freedom: Universal Basic Income and Social Power

2023

Technological Unemployment, Basic income, and Well-being (Routledge Advances in Economic Policy)

Universal Basic Income: What Everyone Needs to Know

A Research Agenda for Basic Income (Elgar Research Agendas)

The Popularity of Basic Income: Evidence from the Polls (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Welfare for Markets: A Global History of Basic Income (The Life of Ideas)

A Tale of Two Economies: A New Financial Operating System For the American Economy

Basic Income in Korea and Beyond: Social, Economic, and Theological Perspectives (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

The Problem of Property: Taking the Freedom of Nonowners Seriously (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

2022

Basic Income Experiments: Theory, Practice and Politics

Basic Income-What, Why, and How?: Aspects of the Global Basic Income Debate (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

In the Balance: The Case for a Universal Basic Income in South Africa and Beyond

The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All

Is Basic Income Within Reach?: Building the Case Amidst Progress and Poverty (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Human Capital versus Basic Income: Ideology and Models for Anti-Poverty Programs in Latin America

Quest for Dignity : The Right to Basic Income

2021

A Modern Guide to Citizen's Basic Income: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Elgar Modern Guides)

Let There Be Money: Understanding Modern Monetary Theory and Basic Income

Basic Income Experiments: A Critical Examination of Their Goals, Contexts, and Methods (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

One Dear Land: A Better World through Information, Universal Basic Income, Community, World Government, and Infinitism

Universal Basic Income in Historical Perspective

Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy

Basic Income: A History

Our Fair Share: How One Small Change Can Create a More Equitable American Economy

Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything

Radical Trust: Basic Income for Complicated Lives

Ours: The Case for Universal Property

The Case for Basic Income: Freedom, Security, Justice

Common Wealth Dividends: History and Theory (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Is Basic Income Within Reach?: Building the Case Amidst Progress and Poverty (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Basic Income and Sovereign Money: The Alternative to Economic Crisis and Austerity Policy

Tyranny of Kindness: Dismantling the Welfare System to End Poverty in America

Welfare Doesn't Work: The Promises of Basic Income for a Failed American Safety Net (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

2020

Empirical Research on an Unconditional Basic Income in Europe (Contributions to Economics)

Basic Income, Disability Pensions and the Australian Political Economy: Envisioning Egalitarian Transformation, Funding, and Sustainability (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Basic Income for Canadians: From the COVID-19 Emergency to Financial Security for All

The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public Policies

Implementing a Basic Income in Australia: Pathways Forward (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

HUMANKIND

Pandemic Capitalism: From Broken Systems To Basic Incomes

Our Future: The Basic Income Plan for Peace, Justice, Liberty, Democracy, and Personal Dignity

The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations

Political Activism and Basic Income Guarantee: International Experiences and Perspectives Past, Present, and Near Future (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now

Automation and Human Solidarity (International Political Theory)

The Coming Age of Imagination: How universal basic income will lead to an explosion of creativity

2019

Basic Income Experiments: Theory, Practice and Politics

Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth

The Future of Work, Technology, and Basic Income (Routledge Research in Applied Ethics)

The Case for Universal Basic Income

The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Wellbeing

Fully Automated Luxury Communism

2018

A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens

Universal Basic Income and the Reshaping of Democracy: Towards a Citizens' Stipend in a New Political Order

Where We Go from Here: Chaos to Community: A Modest Proposal for the Livable Income Security Act of 2019

Basic Income for Canadians: The key to a healthier, happier, more secure life for all

The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene

Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

It's Basic Income: The Global Debate

Basic Income and the Left: A European Debate

Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future

Growing Pains: the future of democracy (and work)

Tomorrow 3.0: Transaction Costs and the Sharing Economy

Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn

Against Charity

2017

Basic Income Imperative: For Peace, Justice, Liberty, And Personal Dignity

Universal Basic Income: The Irish Context

Basic Income: A Guide for the Open-Minded

A Basic Income Handbook

Basic Income Policy and National Debts: The Basic Blueprint for a Global Planned Economy

Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen

Financing Basic Income: Addressing the Cost Objection (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Work Inequality Basic Income

Omnia Sunt Communia: On the Commons and the Transformation to Postcapitalism (In Common)

Surviving the Machine Age: Intelligent Technology and the Transformation of Human Work

The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression

Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy

Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World

Why the Future Is Workless

Better Now: Six Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for All Canadians

2016

Rethink: The Surprising History of New Ideas

System Upgrade v2.016: Solutions for a failing economy, wealth distribution, declining democracy, climate change, and robots that steal jobs

No More Work: Why Full Employment Is a Bad Idea

Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing (Critical Topics in Contemporary Anthropology)

Basic Income: How a Canadian movement could change the world

Basic Income in Australia and New Zealand: Perspectives from the Neoliberal Frontier (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Citizen's Basic Income: A Christian Social Policy

The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century

What Do We Do About Inequality?

Extinction: A Radical History

The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay

The Feasibility of Citizen's Income

Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream

In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (Revised and Updated Edition)

Why We Can't Afford the Rich

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

Alternatives to Capitalism: Proposals for a Democratic Economy

Can the Welfare State Survive?

Utopia for Realists: The Case for a Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, and a 15-hour Workweek

Voting for Freedom: The 2016 Swiss Referendum on Basic Income: A Milestone in the Advancement of Democracy

A Feasible Basic Income Scheme for Germany: Effects on Labor Supply, Poverty, and Income Inequality

Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future

The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

2015

The Refusal of Work: Rethinking Post-Work Theory and Practice

Free Money for All: A Basic Income Guarantee Solution for the Twenty-First Century

Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work

101 Reasons for a Citizen's Income: Arguments for Giving Everyone Some Money

Change Everything: Creating an Economy for the Common Good

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution

Inequality: What Can Be Done?

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

The 1% and the Rest of Us: A Political Economy of Dominant Ownership

Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India

Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World

2014

Basic Income in Japan: Prospects for a Radical Idea in a Transforming Welfare State

Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation

With Liberty and Dividends for All: How to Save Our Middle Class When Jobs Don't Pay Enough

The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class

A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens

A Convenient Truth: A better society for us and the planet

2013

Basic Income and the Free Market: Austrian Economics and the Potential for Efficient Redistribution

Money for Everyone: Why We Need a Citizen's Income

Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research

Our Money: how to shrink government, boost business, eliminate poverty and make the economy work properly for everyone

Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom as the Power to Say No

2012

Citizen's Income and Welfare Regimes in Latin America: From Cash Transfers to Rights

Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: how to survive the economic collapse and be happy

Basic Income Worldwide: Horizons of Reform

Exporting the Alaska Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around the World

Basic Income Guarantee: Your Right to Economic Security

Basic Income Guarantee and Politics: International Experiences and Perspectives on the Viability of Income Guarantee

Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend: Examining its Suitability as a Model

Basic Income Reconsidered: Social Justice, Liberalism, and the Demands of Equality

Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy

2011

Citizen's Income and Green Economics

A Better World is Possible

Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition

2010

Envisioning Real Utopias

2009

The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future

2008

We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform

Ending Poverty: Changing Behavior, Guaranteeing Income, and Transforming Government

2007

Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom

The Failed Welfare Revolution: America's Struggle over Guaranteed Income Policy

2006

Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future (Radical Imagination)

In Our Hands : A Plan To Replace The Welfare State

Redesigning Distribution: Basic Income and Stakeholder Grants as Cornerstones for an Egalitarian Capitalism

2005

The Ethics and Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee

2004

The Origins of Universal Grants: An Anthology of Historical Writings on Basic Capital and Basic Income

The End of Work

The Ethics of Stakeholding

2003

The Civic Minimum: On the Rights and Obligations of Economic Citizenship

Basic Income on the Agenda: Policy Objectives and Political Chances

2001

What's Wrong With a Free Lunch?

2000

The Stakeholder Society

Pre-2000

Freedom and Security: An Introduction to the Basic Income Debate

The National Tax Rebate: A New America With Less Government

Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism?

Building a Win-Win World: Life Beyond Global Economic Warfare

The $30,000 Solution: A Guarantee Annual Income for Every American

... and Economic Justice for All: Welfare Reform for the 21st Century

Tyranny of Kindness: Dismantling the Welfare System to End Poverty in America

Arguing for Basic Income: Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform

Liberating the Early American Dream: A Way to Transcend the Capitalist/Communist Dilemma Nonviolently

Work Incentives and Income Guarantees: The New Jersey Negative Income Tax Experiment

The Politics of a Guaranteed Income: The Nixon Administration and the Family Assistance Plan

Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The Guaranteed Income: Next Step in Economic Evolution?

Two-Factor Theory: The Economics Of Reality

The Guaranteed Income: Next Step in Economic Evolution?

Economic Democracy

A reasonable revolution: being a discussion of the state bonus scheme, a proposal for a national minimum income

Higher production by a bonus on national output: A proposal for a minimum income for all varying with national productivity

Roads to Freedom

Basic Income in Fiction

Everyone Should Get It First

Crisis: 2038: A Novel

The Expanse Book Series

Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future

Operation Toga: Type One Go Ahead

Wish

Schrodinger's Cat II: The Trick Top Hat

For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs

Beyond This Horizon

Maya Greenwood Book Series

The Midas Plague

Honor Harrington (13 Book Series)

This resource was compiled thanks to a crowdfunded monthly basic income. If you find value in this list, you can support it along with all my advocacy for UBI with a monthly pledge of $1.

Are you a creative? Become a creator on Patreon. Join me in taking the BIG Patreon Creator Pledge for basic income

Special thanks to Arjun Banker, Steven Grimm, Larry Cohen, Topher Hunt, Aaron Marcus-Kubitza, Andrew Stern, Patrick, Stephane Boisvert, Albert Wenger, Richard Just, Chris Smothers, Joel Leoj, Jeff Marshall, Mark Witham, Gisele Huff, Lainie Petersen, Skye MacLeod, Vladimir Baranov, Victor Vurpillat, Catherine MacDonald, David Ihnen, Danielle Texeira, Katie Doemland, Paul Wicks, Jan Smole, Joe Esposito, Jack Wagner, Joe Ballou, Stuart Matthews, Natalie Foster, Chris McCoy, Michael Honey, Gary Aranovich, Kai Wong, John David Hodge, Louise Whitmore, Dan O’Sullivan, Harish Venkatesan, Michiel Dral, Gerald Huff, Susanne Berg, Cameron Ottens, Kian Alavi, Gray Scott, Andreas, Kevin Baker, Lawrence W, Lee, Kirk Israel, Robert Solovay, Jeff Schulman, Andrew Henderson, Robert F. Greene, Martin Jordo, Victor Lau, Shane Gordon, Paolo Narciso, Johan Grahn, Tony DeStefano, Erhan Altay, Bryan Herdliska, Dave Shelton, Rise & Shine PAC, Luke Sampson, Lee Irving, Kris Roadruck, Amy Shaffer, Thomas Welsh, Olli Niinimäki, Casey Young, Elizabeth Balcar, Masud Shah, Allen Bauer, all my other funders for their support, and my amazing partner, Katie Smith.

Would you like to see your name here too?

Scott Santens writes and speaks about the idea of unconditional basic income. He is also the Editor of Basic Income Today. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Reddit where he is a moderator for the /r/BasicIncome subreddit.