This week, Alan Krueger announced that he will be joining the research team for GiveDirectly’s basic income pilot. Dr. Krueger is the former Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and a professor at Princeton. As Max Ghenis remarked, “Krueger’s research has a history of influencing public policy.” In other exciting cash-policy news, the […]
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Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
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Basic income has reached the White House – Cash in the News
This week President Obama fielded a question on basic income (he was sympathetic to the arguments but didn’t come down one way or the other). On CNBC Andy Stern proposed that basic income — possibly “the biggest ‘new’ idea of the 21st century” — could be the solution to “a tsunami of economic disruption… barreling toward the United […]
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The poor, liberated – Cash in the News
Abhijit Banerjee, leading academic from MIT and one of the principal researchers on our new basic income trial, wrote in an op-ed in the Indian Express that “the poor, liberated from having to worry… might plan their lives better.” GiveDirectly’s basic income pilot, he writes, “will offer us a chance to learn… If you care […]
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Give boldly, give wisely – Cash in the News
Stephen Warren, of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, was looking for advice on how and where to give, when he stumbled upon “effective altruism.” He writes, “modern interventions and modern research help us maximize the impact of our giving.” One of these modern interventions is cash, or in it’s long-term form, basic income. As Matt Zwolinski writes, […]
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Giving plain old money to people – Cash in the News
Zev Minsky-Primus wanted to give some of his Bar Mitzvah money away, but he didn’t know how. After looking at the evidence, Zev decided to give “plain old money to people” through GiveDirectly, no strings attached, and let them decide for themselves. Elsewhere in the news, cofounder Michael Faye talks about direct giving on a […]
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One of my favorite topics – Cash in the News
On Tuesday, Paul got a chance to respond to questions from the Reddit community, including some on his favorite topics, like the design of our RCTs and our new basic income trial. In related news, with the Swiss voting on a basic income this Sunday, and details about Y Combinator’s basic income trial just released, […]
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Increase use and coordination – Cash in the News
After days of talks, the World Humanitarian Summit’s Grand Bargain listed as its third recommendation: “Increase the use and coordination of cash-based programming.” But even as cash transfers continue to gain support, as Nikita Lalwani and Sam Winter-Levy uncovered in their long-form feature in The New Republic, some in the aid sector are pushing back. […]
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First of its kind – Cash in the News
With the World Humanitarian Summit coming up next week, the discussion turns toward ways cash can make aid more cost-effective. Journalists reported on emergency cash transfers for disaster relief in Canada and the outcomes of cash on infants. The Irish Times covered Kenya’s mobile money system as a vehicle for sending cash instead of in-kind […]
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GiveDirectly wants to find some answers – Cash in the News
As the debate over basic income continues to heat up, the conversation turns to GiveDirectly’s upcoming trial to find answers through rigorous research. Meanwhile, cofounder Paul Niehaus talked basic income with Mark Leon Goldberg on the Global Dispatches podcast, and COO Domestic Ian Bassin appeared on Seattle Morning Radio and France 24 TV to explain […]
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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 […]