[Interview] "Finland Basic Income 2nd Experiment Expected... Ongoing Process, Not a Failure"

Professor Seo Hyun-su of Korea National University of Education Earned a PhD in Political Science from Finland

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] "Finland's basic income experiment is ongoing. The Finnish government has allocated a budget of 20 million euros (approximately 26.8 billion KRW), the same as the first phase, for the basic income experiment, and it is expected to conduct a second experiment once the COVID-19 situation stabilizes."

One of the main arguments against the introduction of basic income is, "Didn't Finland fail as well?" However, Professor Seo Hyun-soo, Ph.D. in Political Science and a professor at the Graduate School of Education Policy at Korea National University of Education, who was on the ground during Finland's basic income experiment, explained, "The discussion on basic income in Finland has been ongoing for over 30 years, and it is not about concluding success or failure from a single experiment but about finding a feasible alternative." He went to Finland at the end of 2011 to study and earned his Ph.D. in Political Science, returning to Korea in 2018. Finland's basic income experiment was actively prepared from 2015 and conducted over two years from 2017 to 2018.

In a phone interview with Asia Economy on the 24th, Professor Seo said, "Although the government changed last year from the centrist-conservative coalition party that conducted the basic income experiment to a Social Democratic Party (SDP) coalition government, they are planning a different model of basic income," adding, "In Finland, when a party takes power, they disclose a four-year policy program, and a new basic income experiment budget led by the SDP is scheduled to be allocated within 2023."

This was not a progressive agenda. Due to the decline of Nokia and the European financial crisis, Finland's economy faced difficulties, so the background of the basic income experiment was to increase employment rates and productivity. Compared to Sweden or Denmark, Finland implemented welfare services a step later, which led to deeper considerations about sustainability.

On the other hand, the SDP focuses on workers, emphasizing policies such as unemployment insurance, health insurance, and pensions. However, after coming to power, they formed a coalition with parties strongly advocating for basic income introduction, leading to the conception of a new basic income model.

Professor Seo said, "The system proposed by the SDP is similar to basic income," explaining, "It is a method of unconditional payment with additional incentives if job training is undertaken."

Finland's basic income experiment involved paying 560 euros (approximately 700,000 KRW) per month without additional verification procedures to 2,000 recipients of existing unemployment benefits. Last month, the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (KELA) released the final report, which concluded that while there was no significant change in employment rates, quality of life improved.

Professor Seo noted, "Since the experiment targeted people receiving unemployment benefits, it differs somewhat from a universal basic income system," adding, "The structure paid the same basic income even if recipients found jobs, based on the expectation that this would encourage more active job searching, but no visible effect was observed." He continued, "It was confirmed that subjective welfare and quality of life indicators were higher compared to general unemployment benefit recipients."

Regarding employment rates, he also pointed out that during the basic income experiment period, a system was introduced that asked about job-seeking activities and provided an additional separate allowance, which acted as a variable.

Professor Seo said, "There seems to be cases in Korea where the experimental context in Finland, where a universal welfare model is already established, is not fully understood," adding, "Finland is conducting phased experiments while discussing various versions of basic income policy. We can observe Finland's experiments and discussions to decide what to adopt and discard."

He further stated, "I think interest in basic income is high in Korea because inequality issues have become very serious," and cautioned, "While careful and flexible system design is possible, it would be problematic to approach this from the perspective of specific political factions or ideological camps."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.