Replication Package for "The Falling Cost of Basic Income"

Replication data and R code for: Rossbach, Jack, and Karl Widerquist. 2026. "The Falling Cost of Basic Income in the United States, 1967–2024: Estimates for a Plan Large Enough to Eliminate Poverty." Basic Income Studies. https://doi.org/10.1515/bis-2025-0024 This replication package contains all code and non-restricted data necessary to reproduce the Tables and Figures in the published article. The analysis uses CPS ASEC microdata accessed via IPUMS (https://cps.ipums.org/cps/), which must be downloaded separately due to IPUMS terms of use. Instructions on gaining access and an R script to download the microdata after receiving access are provided in the package. Abstract: This article estimates the cost of Universal Basic Income (UBI) sufficient to eliminate poverty in the United States using public-use microdata from the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) from 1967–2024. We find that the net cost of a poverty-line UBI (\$16,000 per adult, \$8,000 per child) with a 50% marginal tax rate is approximately $783.7 billion per year. In inflation-adjusted terms, this cost has fallen from 9.35% of GDP in 1967 to 2.67% in 2024, less than one-third of what it would have cost 57 years ago.