The Relationship Between Cash Transfers and Effective Altruism

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I want to talk about the relationship between what you're doing and effective altruism movement. How do you think the interventions that you're funding compared to those let's say standard give well charities or cash transfers, things like that? I can say my interest in this world actually comes out of a history of involvement with cash transfers. Might there be like a lot of hidden potential, there's over a billion people living right in one household that are receiving or enrolled in some kind ofCash transfer program.

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Can giving people a sense of agency and dignity be better than giving them access to food, shelter, clothing, or cash? And what exactly can be done in practice to expand human agency? How does the value of agency-oriented interventions compare to the value of more tangible interventions? How robust are the findings about all of the above in light of the replication crisis? In general, how much confidence should we place (with or without the replication crisis) in the findings of social science research? How tight should the feedback loop be for organizations that do both research for and implementation of charitable interventions?

Richard Sedlmayr works with a private foundation called the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, where he funds research and innovation to promote pro-poor economic development. He is also involved in the setup of The Agency Fund, a philanthropic partnership investing in ideas and organizations that support people in the navigation of difficult lives. Richard's background is in behavioral, development, and financial economics, and he has a PhD in Public Policy from Oxford. Richard has lived in a dozen countries and is currently based in the Bay Area. You can get in touch with him on LinkedIn.

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