Sixty years of Basic Income research

This article presents a quantitative history of basic income (BI) research within the Social Sciences from the 1960s to the present, utilizing bibliometric analysis on OpenAlex data. We identify five main research communities; Social Justice, Experiment, Tax and Labor Supply, Degrowth, and Others, and four major international collaboration clusters. Through this framework, we identify three major periods in BI research; an early experimental focus (1960–1980), a shift toward taxation, labor supply, and social justice (1980–2000), and a recent diversification into ecological concerns, thinking on social protection in South Africa and Germany, and care economics (2000–2020). A key insight from our study is the enduring influence of Negative Income Tax (NIT) and Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) within BI research. Although the conceptual boundaries of BI have expanded to include broader social justice and ecological perspectives, the Experiment and Tax/Labor Supply communities continue to engage deeply with NIT and MIG. This persistence reflects long-standing research traditions, underscoring the distinct policy concerns shaping different strands of BI research. Ultimately, our study deepens our understanding of BI as an evolving research field, shaped by distinct intellectual traditions, regional specializations, and shifting policy priorities over time.