However, researchers said basic income led to participants being employed for an average of just six extra days during a one-year period of the trial. The "small" effect on work suggested that for some benefit recipients, "the problems related to finding employment are not related to bureaucracy or to financial incentives," Kari Hamalainen of Finland's VATT Institute for Economic Research said in a statement.
A basic income has been widely touted as a possible solution to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, which has put tens of millions of jobs at risk worldwide.
Although the Finnish study did not produce the hoped-for job market stimulus, participants "were more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain, depression, sadness and loneliness," researchers said.