Unconditional Cash Study data released

OpenResearch releases the most comprehensive U.S. dataset on unconditional cash to date #

OpenResearch has released the public-use dataset from its Unconditional Cash Study, the most comprehensive study of unconditional cash in the United States to date. The release turns a rich longitudinal study into a shared resource that can support new questions about economic security, family life, work, health, and well-being. The dataset, codebook, and documentation are available at data.openresearchlab.org.

The randomized controlled trial followed 3,000 participants over three years of monthly transfers, with 1,000 receiving $1,000 a month and the remainder receiving $50. Surveys fielded monthly built a detailed record of how people navigated income and expense volatility, searched for work, moved between jobs, allocated their time, and experienced changes in their households during a period that included the COVID-19 pandemic, labor market disruption, changes to benefit programs, and a rising cost of living.

The release pairs privacy-protected survey microdata with searchable documentation that connects variables to their source questions, records construction decisions, and shows when and how measures were collected. The public dataset retains observations at the frequency they were collected rather than aggregating them to the annual level, giving researchers the flexibility to study shorter-run patterns, construct alternative measures, and apply new methodologies.

"We hope that making these data public will enable researchers to explore questions far beyond the ones this study was designed to answer," said Elizabeth Rhodes, Research Director at OpenResearch. 

"Technology does not decide how prosperity is shared, which problems get solved, or whose lives improve. Those are choices. Research cannot make those choices for society, but it can help us understand what it would take to expand opportunity."

As AI reshapes work and expands what researchers can learn from increasingly large and complex sources of behavioral and administrative data, those sources can reveal patterns in human behavior at extraordinary scale but often lack the context of people's lives. Understanding how workers and households experience and adapt to disruption requires data gathered over time, directly from the people living through it.

Over several years, participants gave their time and shared detailed information about their lives with the research team. Making those data available to a wider research community and the public extends the value of those contributions.

We are announcing the publication of this dataset as part of the London School of Economics and Political Science's 2026 Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences. This annual forum convenes dialogue at the intersection of AI and the social sciences to mobilise expertise, research, and partnerships that ensure AI serves human and societal needs. The 2026 Global Forum focuses on how AI is reshaping work and how governments, firms, and workers can prepare. More information: lse.ac.uk/global-ai-forum

Explore the documentation and request access to the dataset at data.openresearchlab.org. Questions about the data can be directed to data@openresearchlab.org.