Finland's Basic Income Experiment

The Finnish government ran an experiment where 2,000 randomly selected citizens were given €560 / month, unconditionally, for two years. The results are in.

Overall, people getting basic income saw slightly higher employment than the control group, suggesting basic income didn't make recipients give up on employment. Recipients of basic income were also more satisfied with their financial situation.

The most promising result: recipients were 10 percentage points less likely to report being depressed than the control group.

Of course, two years is too short a time-frame to draw conclusions about an intervention like Basic Income, that changes the powerful centuries-old incentive to have to work for one's daily bread. Most positive or negative effects could take a decade or more to materialise, as society adapts to the reduced need to rely on continuous employment.