Long Beach Pledge Study

In 2022, the City of Long Beach launched the Long Beach Pledge, a Guaranteed Income Program distributing $500 per month for 12 months to a first cohort of 250 low-income 250 households in Long Beach. The implementation partner for the program, the Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI), opened the online application process in December 2022 and randomly assigned eligible applicants between treatment and control groups. In 2024, the City of Long Beach expanded the program to a second cohort of 200 low-income households. Similarly, the application process opened in January 2024 and eligible applicants were randomly assigned between treatment and control groups.

2023-04-01

2025-03-31

Housing security, Food Security, Indebtedness Physical wellbeing of parents, Mental health of parents, Physical wellbeing of children, Mental health of children, Parent-child relationships

Each outcome will be constructed as a standardized index measure based on selected online survey questions.

Access to benefits, Access to healthcare, Employment, Education and technical training, Access to childcare

Each outcome will be constructed as a standardized index measure based on selected online survey questions.

In 2022, the City of Long Beach launched the Long Beach Pledge, a Guaranteed Income Program distributing $500 per month for 12 months to a first cohort of 250 low-income households in Long Beach. The implementation partner for the program, the Fund for Guaranteed Income (F4GI), opened the online application process in December 2022 and randomly assigned eligible applicants between treatment and control groups. In 2024, the City of Long Beach expanded the program to a second cohort of 200 low-income households. Similarly, the application process opened in January 2024 and eligible applicants were randomly assigned between treatment and control groups.
The research study is a mixed methods study that focuses on single-parent households that applied and were determined eligible for the Long Beach Pledge. The focus on single parent households is due to research interest in this target population. It also addresses challenges in program design due to different eligibility criteria across cohorts and noncompliance. The study includes three online surveys: a baseline survey conducted before applicants were informed that they were selected to participate in the program, a mid-program survey 6 months after payments started and a post-program survey 2 months after payments stopped. It also includes, for each cohort, 30-40 online or phone interviews with program participants 6 months after payments started and 15-20 follow-up interviews with the same program participants 2 months after payments stopped.
For the quantitative analysis, we will pool data from Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 across the mid-program and post-program surveys, resulting in an unbalanced sample with two time points per household at most. As such, our main estimating equations will use a pooled OLS specification, which allows us to include all available observations and maximize sample size. Panel data estimation with household fixed effects will be reserved for a smaller subset of households that completed all three surveys (baseline, mid-program, and post-program), and will be used for exploratory analysis to study within-household changes over time.
The qualitative component of the study complements the quantitative analysis by providing insights into household experiences with the guaranteed income program. It will help identify potential mechanisms of impact and deepen our understanding of the lived realities behind the observed quantitative patterns.

Randomization done in office by a computer.

Household

No

735 single-parent applicant households.

735 single-parent applicant households.

354 single-parent applicant households in treatment and 381 in control.

Long Beach Pledge Study PAP