I totally agree that cash transfers are an incredible way to transform people’s lives! What kind of evidence do we have about cash transfers being able to “end extreme poverty”? I always thought they helped improve people’s lives for a few years.
I suppose we could straightforwardly just transfer enough cash to everyone below a certain poverty line until their annual income is above it. The Longview team has estimated this would cost about $258 billion [edit: annually] (pp. 8-10 here).
Sorry, I was too terse! I agree that we should expect this amount to decline over time. I was trying to clarify that despite my parent saying “until” the $258B estimate was not a total cost.
(I’ve edited my comment to change “annually” to “for one year”.)
Research finds people use these funds to improve their health, education, income, and self-reliance, ultimately reducing adult and child mortality. And these results can be sustained years into the future. [Footnote: Source on reducing adult & child mortality. Two examples of long-term cash impact: Uganda (12 years), Mexico (20 years).]
GiveDirectly’s baseline measures don’t date back that far, but we do expect research on 5- and 9-year follow-up measures sometime in 2024.
Cash transfers alone won’t eradicate extreme poverty globally, however they’re an under-funded and under-utilized tool that would massively reduce extreme poverty and work in compliment with other efforts.
I totally agree that cash transfers are an incredible way to transform people’s lives! What kind of evidence do we have about cash transfers being able to “end extreme poverty”? I always thought they helped improve people’s lives for a few years.
I suppose we could straightforwardly just transfer enough cash to everyone below a certain poverty line until their annual income is above it. The Longview team has estimated this would cost about $258 billion [edit: annually] (pp. 8-10 here).
$258B for one year
Sorry, yep, I meant to add an “annually” there!
As people escape extreme poverty, that total decreases year-over-year—explained in detail here.
Sorry, I was too terse! I agree that we should expect this amount to decline over time. I was trying to clarify that despite my parent saying “until” the $258B estimate was not a total cost.
(I’ve edited my comment to change “annually” to “for one year”.)
GiveDirectly’s baseline measures don’t date back that far, but we do expect research on 5- and 9-year follow-up measures sometime in 2024.
Cash transfers alone won’t eradicate extreme poverty globally, however they’re an under-funded and under-utilized tool that would massively reduce extreme poverty and work in compliment with other efforts.
That makes sense to me, and matches with what I see in the post. I find the title a little surprising/misleading compared to what you’ve said here