Evaluating Basic Income, Basic Service, and Basic Voucher for Social and Ecological Sustainability

This paper discusses the restructuring of the social protection system in the changing labor market by comparing and critically reviewing policy ideas of Universal Basic Income (UBI), Universal Basic Voucher (UBV), and Universal Basic Service (UBS) with a focus on how the Social and Ecological Transition (SET) can be achieved. UBS is a concept often paired with UBI, and UBV is considered a middle way between UBI (cash) and UBS (in-kind). This study first analyzes Korea’s basic income, basic service, and basic voucher cases, according to Bohnenberger’s nine types of social benefits through Standing’s policy evaluation principles. Additionally, we evaluated how each of the benefits included in basic income, basic service, and basic voucher can contribute to social and ecological sustainability in the Korean context. Through this evaluation, to pursue SET in the future, what kind of policy efforts should be accompanied with basic income through a Korean case analysis was discussed. The paper focuses on Korea in particular, as all three policies have been initiated here.