What would happen if we randomly gave $1,000 to poor families? Now we know | The Washington Post

Research by Dennis Egger, Johannes Haushofer, CEGA Faculty Director Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker finds that cash transfers don’t just benefit their direct recipient, but the entire community. The Washington Post recently wrote about their findings.

“What happens to one of the world’s poorest places if you randomly pick more than 10,000 poor families out of an eligible pool and give them $1,000 each, no strings attached? It sounds like a plan some mad scientist might hatch, but no: It was actually a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton and the University of California at San Diego who came up with it. They have just unveiled the results of a sprawling, first-of-its-kind study that ought to put to bed some enduring myths about the effects of giving cash directly to the very poor in rural Africa.”

Read more: What would happen if we randomly gave $1,000 to poor families? Now we know. – The Washington Post