"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

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