What Did We Learn from the North American Income Maintenance Experiments? New Data and Evidence on Household Behavior and Labor Supply

Author: Chris Riddell (Department of Economics, University of Waterloo )Craig Riddell (Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia)
Posted: 3 October 2025

Abstract

We re-assess the consequences of a NIT for two-parent families, utilizing hitherto untapped data. The Gary and Seattle experiments fail balancing tests. In New Jersey, Denver and Manitoba we estimate far greater labor supply responses than the current consensus, with remarkable consistency in point estimates and statistical significance across experiments, genders and countries. On the other hand, using newly collected data from archival records, we estimate substantial increases in happiness, marital satisfaction, household production, and social activities in Manitoba. We also reject the contentious finding that the NIT increased marital separations in Seattle-Denver, which is driven solely by Seattle.
JEL codes: C93, I38, J12, J22
Keywords: Basic Income, Negative Income Tax, Income Support Programs, Labour Supply, Marital Satisfaction, Household Well-Being