"One of our earliest supporters and a dear friend of mine, Mark Lampert, once said to me, “The way I think about it is, imagine that this money were already in the hands of people living in poverty. If I could, would I want to tax it and then use it to finance other projects that I think would benefit them?”
I think that's an interesting thought experiment -- and a good one -- to say, “Are there cases in which I think that's justifiable?” — Paul Niehaus
In today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez interviews Paul Niehaus — co-founder of GiveDirectly — on the case for giving unconditional cash to the world's poorest households.
Links to learn more, summary and full transcript.
They cover:
- The empirical evidence on whether giving cash directly can drive meaningful economic growth
- How the impacts of GiveDirectly compare to USAID employment programmes
- GiveDirectly vs GiveWell’s top-recommended charities
- How long-term guaranteed income affects people's risk-taking and investments
- Whether recipients prefer getting lump sums or monthly instalments
- How GiveDirectly tackles cases of fraud and theft
- The case for universal basic income, and GiveDirectly’s UBI studies in Kenya, Malawi, and Liberia
- The political viability of UBI
- Plenty more
Chapters:
- Cold open (00:00:00)
- Luisa’s intro (00:00:58)
- The basic case for giving cash directly to the poor (00:03:28)
- Comparing GiveDirectly to USAID programmes (00:15:42)
- GiveDirectly vs GiveWell’s top-recommended charities (00:35:16)
- Cash might be able to drive economic growth (00:41:59)
- Fraud and theft of GiveDirectly funds (01:09:48)
- Universal basic income studies (01:22:33)
- Skyjo (01:44:43)
Producer and editor: Keiran Harris
Audio Engineering Lead: Ben Cordell
Technical editing: Dominic Armstrong and Milo McGuire
Additional content editing: Luisa Rodriguez and Katy Moore
Transcriptions: Katy Moore
