Finland will be giving people free money as part of a social welfare experiment: At the start of this new year, Finland launched what some would call a daring experiment to test run the universal basic income welfare system. “Starting [on 1 January] and lasting until 2019, the federal social-security institution Kela will distribute roughly USD 590 each month to 2,000 jobless Finns,” writes Chris Weller for Business Insider. Basic income is a social welfare system that guarantees that citizens, whether employed or not, have a set monthly income that can guarantee they will not be “falling through the cracks,” advocates say.

Kela’s experiment in Finland, one of a handful around the world, is meant to identify two things: First, whether the basic income system can help Finland reorganize its “messy” social security system; and second, people’s behavior when they receive free money.  “Some people might stay on their couches, and some might go to work,” Marjukka Turunen, the head of Kela’s legal benefits unit, said. “We don’t know yet.”