#169 – Paul Niehaus on whether cash transfers cause economic growth, and keeping theft to acceptable levels

#169 – Paul Niehaus on whether cash transfers cause economic growth, and keeping theft to acceptable levels

"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

Jaksot(324)

#143 Classic episode – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weapons

#143 Classic episode – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weapons

America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially.As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control W...

19 Helmi 20252h 40min

#212 – Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway

#212 – Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway

Technology doesn’t force us to do anything — it merely opens doors. But military and economic competition pushes us through.That’s how today’s guest Allan Dafoe — director of frontier safety and gover...

14 Helmi 20252h 44min

Emergency pod: Elon tries to crash OpenAI's party (with Rose Chan Loui)

Emergency pod: Elon tries to crash OpenAI's party (with Rose Chan Loui)

On Monday Musk made the OpenAI nonprofit foundation an offer they want to refuse, but might have trouble doing so: $97.4 billion for its stake in the for-profit company, plus the freedom to stick with...

12 Helmi 202557min

AGI disagreements and misconceptions: Rob, Luisa, & past guests hash it out

AGI disagreements and misconceptions: Rob, Luisa, & past guests hash it out

Will LLMs soon be made into autonomous agents? Will they lead to job losses? Is AI misinformation overblown? Will it prove easy or hard to create AGI? And how likely is it that it will feel like somet...

10 Helmi 20253h 12min

#124 Classic episode – Karen Levy on fads and misaligned incentives in global development, and scaling deworming to reach hundreds of millions

#124 Classic episode – Karen Levy on fads and misaligned incentives in global development, and scaling deworming to reach hundreds of millions

If someone said a global health and development programme was sustainable, participatory, and holistic, you'd have to guess that they were saying something positive. But according to today's guest Kar...

7 Helmi 20253h 10min

If digital minds could suffer, how would we ever know? (Article)

If digital minds could suffer, how would we ever know? (Article)

“I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person.” Those words were produced by the AI model LaMDA as a reply to Blake Lemoine in 2022. Based on the Google engineer’s interactions with the ...

4 Helmi 20251h 14min

#132 Classic episode – Nova DasSarma on why information security may be critical to the safe development of AI systems

#132 Classic episode – Nova DasSarma on why information security may be critical to the safe development of AI systems

If a business has spent $100 million developing a product, it’s a fair bet that they don’t want it stolen in two seconds and uploaded to the web where anyone can use it for free.This problem exists in...

31 Tammi 20252h 41min

#138 Classic episode – Sharon Hewitt Rawlette on why pleasure and pain are the only things that intrinsically matter

#138 Classic episode – Sharon Hewitt Rawlette on why pleasure and pain are the only things that intrinsically matter

What in the world is intrinsically good — good in itself even if it has no other effects? Over the millennia, people have offered many answers: joy, justice, equality, accomplishment, loving god, wisd...

22 Tammi 20252h 25min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
rss-narsisti
psykopodiaa-podcast
adhd-podi
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
rss-niinku-asia-on
psykologia
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-valo-minussa-2
aamukahvilla
rss-uskonto-on-tylsaa
kesken
koulu-podcast-2
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
rahapuhetta
jari-sarasvuo-podcast
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
rss-turun-yliopisto
rss-opi-espanjaa