ABSTRACT
The New Jersey experiment in income maintenance was unique in several respects. First, it was the forerunner of numerous other large-scale, controlled social experiments testing the effects and feasibility of new social programmes by observing how they operate in practice. Second, it was concerned with a live policy issue that could not be resolved satisfactorily on the basis of available data: whether cash allowances, whose net benefits decline as work income increases, significantly reduce work by the recipients. Third, the data to be collected would provide an unusually rich source of information for analysis by economists and other social scientists. This information was the basis for an exhaustive report that was submitted to the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare in late 1973 and early 1974. 1
