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Published on: July 27, 2018
Time Scarcity, Health Behaviors, and Unconditional Cash in Los Angeles
Amy Castro1, Mira Philips1, Isabelle Kim1
1Amy Castro and Stacia West are with the Center for Guaranteed Income Research, School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Mira Philips and Isabelle Kim are PhD candidates in the School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Stacia West is also with the College of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Bo-Kyung Elizabeth Kim is with the Department of Community Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles.
Abstract:
Unconditional cash interventions, such as guaranteed income, are a proposed solution for mediating the adverse health outcomes associated with financial scarcity. To test this, the City of Los Angeles, California, conducted a mixed-methods, randomized controlled trial in which they gave 3202 people $1000 with no strings attached for 12 months in 2022. Although the quantitative findings demonstrated mixed health effects, the qualitative findings highlighted how recipients viewed their well-being as an insurance policy against scarcity and reallocated time to preventive health behaviors when receiving a guaranteed income. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(8):1222-1225. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308125).
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