Here’s where we’re at with basic income

What a response! In the last three weeks, media across the globe has covered our plans to run a basic income trial. The Telegraph wrote that basic income will, “for the first time… be put to a rigorous test” and Vox called our trial “truly historic.” The pilot has also been covered by FiveThirtyEight, The […]

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We just can’t know until we try – Cash in the News

This week saw continued and often in-depth coverage of GiveDirectly’s basic income trial. On both sides of the Atlantic reporters at The Telegraph and New York Magazine asked whether instituting a basic income could make welfare as a whole more efficient and better at serving the poorest. Meanwhile, research continues to show positive impacts of […]

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After years of conjecture – Cash in the News

Our basic income trial continued to make headlines this week after our announcement in Slate two weeks ago. Cofounder Michael Faye spoke with Andrew Flowers of FiveThirtyEight, telling him, “To be honest, a full long-term universal basic income has never been tried, let alone rigorously evaluated.” In Fast Company, Ben Schiller reports: “After years of conjecture […]

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BIG news! – Cash in the News

GiveDirectly made headlines this week when co-founders Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus announced our intention to run a basic income project. The story quickly got the attention of several writers and outlets (selections below). As Freakonomics’ Stephen Dubner says in an unconnected, but coincidentally timed podcast, basic income is “an idea whose time finally may […]

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A great upsurge – Cash in the News

From the Caribbean to the Philippines, cash transfers made it into the news this week as a way of reaching people in need. And in Canada, Senator Art Eggleton, in a letter to editor, argued forcefully for an adoption of cash transfers as a basic income, saying it would result in “a great upsurge in […]

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In the hands of our recipients – Cash in the News

We’re starting a new series, “Cash in the News,” where we will summarize the week’s news on GiveDirectly, cash transfers, and related topics like Effective Altruism and basic income. We will include a list of selected articles and posts, along with a brief, relevant excerpt from the post itself. Stay tuned for the latest and […]

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Why and how we invest

We have a strong incentive and desire to transfer the majority of the funds we receive to our recipients as quickly as possible. GiveDirectly is a service – donors use GiveDirectly to transfer funds to the extreme poor – and our donors expect that service to be efficient and timely. And beyond that, transfer speed […]

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