Howard Neil
Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
Open Res Eur. 2022 Mar 21;2:12. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.14258.2. eCollection 2022.
Over the past 20 years, cash transfers have become increasingly widespread within international development and global social policy. Often, their roll out is preceded by a trial or pilot phase aiming to check feasibility and effectiveness. These pilots can involve thousands of people. However, there is limited discussion within the literature (and even less in practice) of how and whether cash transfer trials and the research that they involve can respect ethical standards. This paper represents an initial step towards filling that gap. It does so by reviewing the latest literature pertaining to the ethics of cash transfers and social experimentation. It concludes by advancing a series of proposals that could support cash transfer trials to take place with greater respect for research ethics norms and in the best interests of participants. The paper's findings have relevance for policymakers and development practitioners working with cash transfers and also for the smaller cognate world of Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) piloting.
在过去20年里，现金转移支付在国际发展和全球社会政策中变得越来越普遍。通常，在其推出之前会有一个试验或试点阶段，旨在检验可行性和有效性。这些试点可能涉及数千人。然而，在文献中（在实践中更是如此），关于现金转移支付试验以及其中所涉及的研究如何以及是否能够尊重道德标准的讨论有限。本文是填补这一空白的初步尝试。它通过回顾与现金转移支付伦理和社会实验相关的最新文献来做到这一点。最后，本文提出了一系列建议，这些建议可以支持现金转移支付试验在更尊重研究伦理规范并符合参与者最佳利益的情况下进行。本文的研究结果对从事现金转移支付工作的政策制定者和发展从业者以及无条件基本收入（UBI）试点这个较小的相关领域都具有参考价值。
