1A SESSION: History of BIG, Part I

Fred Bock, “Basic Income and the Shadow of Speedhamland.”

The analysis of the “Speenhamland” era of the English Poor Law has had a surprisingly important influence on recent social policy debates in the United States. This paper reviews that influence and analyzes a large body of scholarship on the English Poor Law between 1795 and 1834 produced by economic and social historians over the past four decades. While sifting through this evidence is complex, the basic conclusion is that recent scholarship has undermined the Speenhamland stories told by social policy analysts from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The paper concludes with an account of how the initial Speenhamland story played a critical role in the development of the tradition of Classical Economics.

John Cunliffe, University of Central England, and Guido Erreygers, University of Antwerp, “Inheritance and Equal Shares: Early American Views”

(In alphabetical order by first names)

Al Sheahen, author of Guaranteed Income: The Right to Economic Security

Alice O’Connor, UC Santa Barbara, author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy

Amy Wax, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Anne Alstott, Yale University, coauthor of The Stakeholder Society

Barbara Bergmann, American University, author of The Economic Emergence of Women, author of In Defense of Affirmative Action, coauthor of America’s Child Care Problem: The Way Out

Brian Steensland, Princeton University and the University of Indian

Buford E. Farris, Jr., Ph.D., University of St. Louis

Charles M. A. Clark, St. John’s University

Harold Oaklander, Ph.D.

Edie Lundgren, SUNY Stony Brook

Eduardo Suplicy, member of the Brazilian Senate