Blank Slate UBI in the US

This project analyzes the impact of a Blank Slate Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the United States using PolicyEngine.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio Code
• GitHub account
• Python 3.11
• macOS (instructions are for Homebrew users)

Setup Instructions

1. Fork the repository:

   • Visit https://github.com/PolicyEngine/blank-slate-ubi-in-the-us
   • Click the "Fork" button in the top-right corner
   • Choose your GitHub account as the destination for the fork

2. Clone your forked repository using VS Code:

   • Open VS Code
   • Press Cmd+Shift+P to open the Command Palette
   • Type "Git: Clone" and select it
   • Paste the URL of your forked repository
   • Choose a local directory to clone into

3. Install Python 3.11 using Homebrew:

   brew update
   brew install [email protected]

4. Add Python 3.11 to your PATH by adding these lines to your ~/.zshrc file:

   export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/[email protected]/bin:$PATH"
   alias python3.11="/opt/homebrew/opt/[email protected]/bin/python3.11"

5. Apply the changes:

   source ~/.zshrc

6. Open a terminal in VS Code (Terminal > New Terminal) and run:

   make

   This command will:

   • Check for Python 3.11
   • Create a virtual environment
   • Install all required packages
   • Set up a Jupyter kernel
   • Execute both notebooks in sequence: blank_slate_ubi.ipynb and charts.ipynb

Project Structure

• blank_slate_ubi.ipynb: Main analysis notebook
• charts.ipynb: Notebook for generating charts based on the analysis
• requirements.txt: List of Python package dependencies
• Makefile: Automates the setup and execution process
• ubi_amounts.csv: Contains UBI amounts data
• optimisation_results.csv: Contains optimization results
• json_data.json: Contains JSON data for analysis

Additional Commands

• To only set up the environment without running the notebooks:

  make setup

• To run the notebooks after setup:

  make run

• To clean up the environment and generated files:

  make clean

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues:

1. Ensure Python 3.11 is installed and active:

   python3.11 --version

2. If you're having issues with pip or package installations, try:

   make clean
   make

3. If you encounter an "externally-managed-environment" error, ensure you're using the virtual environment:

   source policyengine_env/bin/activate

   Then run pip commands within this environment.

4. For any other issues, please check the error messages in the console output. The Makefile includes verbose output to help identify where problems occur.

Contributing

If you make changes to the project dependencies, please update the requirements.txt file:

policyengine_env/bin/pip freeze > requirements.txt

Contact

For questions or issues, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.