5 korrents from this piece
Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.
Their wordsIf it’s becoming standard to judge interventions by their cost effectiveness, then I can’t be more thrilled.
Their wordsYou can think of cash transfers like the index fund of development (making GiveDirectly the Vanguard).
Their wordsThere will be, I am confident, a great many interventions that do better than cash on any number of metrics. Ones that solve market failures or supply problems are big candidates, just like Starr and Hattendorf say.
Their wordsI’m more skeptical we’ll see better alternatives for pure poverty-alleviation, but we’ll see.
Their wordsThe evidence they cite in favor of cash points to peer reviewed randomized trials. The evidence on better performing programs point to… NGO home pages.