PROCEEDINGS OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Modelling of the universal basic income’s methodology for ubiquitous socio-economic transformations

https://doi.org/10.53231/LZAV.21.3.2
Keywords: universal basic income, fourth industrial revolution, public governance, innovation economy
Language: In English

This paper systematically examines the structural model of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as an integral instrument for transformation of socio-economic structure facing the challenges of 4.0. industrial revolution. UBI is treated not only as a financial measure for increasing of well-being or reducing of social inequality, but as a complex economical tool for promoting innovation and increasing added value in the context of continuously digitalising environment. It leads to radical structural transformations in the main sectors of contemporary life. The idea of UBI serves as a unifying conception generalising all dimensions for social economic development and tending to ambient innovation society in the future. UBI is not a mechanically embedded system but an evidence-based phenomenon, a paradigm arising along the new logic of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiquity) contexts.

UBI in this research is presented as a general methodological complex leading to interdependently connected socio-economic reforms, as well as a new integrated financial instrument; a method for shaping of changes in the social fabric that benefit people’s well-being and social security; a public governance mechanism driving the development of a competitive, sustainable economy in the age of digital technologies.

Microsimulation is a method illustrating the potential of the first attempts to model UBI in Lithuania. It leads to further empirical experiments leading to preparedness for changes approaching from the perspectives of the near future. Assessment of the impact of UBI for social sustainability and innovations is based on financial possibilities, income growth, monetary and fiscal policy, financial and social transformations.