Fair point, that deworming and cash transfers increase consumption instead of directly increase well being, or at least that’s what GiveWell’s main analysis rests on. I do recall that the GD study actually did look at SWB and on page 4 (bit.ly/2B97A1Y) it says that it increased a bunch of different happiness metrics as well (depression, stress, happiness and life satisfaction). However, if you only looked at that effect, GiveDirectly may not be that cost-effective. I haven’t investigated it that much from that angle.
In terms of preventing infant mortality, it seems unlikely that losing a child wouldn’t cause immense suffering to the parents, especially the mother. People often think that this wouldn’t happen because people just “get used to” babies dying, but the odds that a child will die is actually quite low nowadays, even in the developing world. In India, where I have the most experience, it’s measured in deaths per 1,000 live births, not 100, because it’s that’s rare. Additionally, because I don’t think death is nearly as bad as DALYs would have it, I looked a lot into parental mourning before choosing SMS reminders. I don’t have anything formal I wrote up I can point to (though I might at some point), but my research found that most parents, after the loss of a child, are depressed for around a year, with some tail ends of people who never appear to recover.
If it’s the metrics issue that’s leading to drug policy reform, I would recommend looking into preventing iron deficiency (through supplements or fortification) as an alternative. It’s more evidence based and iron deficiency causes massive unhappiness. Anecdotally I’ve had friends who transformed from sad grumpy monsters into happy productive members of society after realizing they were deficient. Additionally there’s evidence it increases income, increases IQ if taken during pregnancy, and decreases mortality in certain circumstances, so it’s pretty robust no matter the metrics you care about.
Lastly, I’ll admit that I haven’t read all of your posts / critiques of AMF’s effectiveness, so I’ll have to go and do that :)
Fair point, that deworming and cash transfers increase consumption instead of directly increase well being, or at least that’s what GiveWell’s main analysis rests on. I do recall that the GD study actually did look at SWB and on page 4 (bit.ly/2B97A1Y) it says that it increased a bunch of different happiness metrics as well (depression, stress, happiness and life satisfaction). However, if you only looked at that effect, GiveDirectly may not be that cost-effective. I haven’t investigated it that much from that angle.
In terms of preventing infant mortality, it seems unlikely that losing a child wouldn’t cause immense suffering to the parents, especially the mother. People often think that this wouldn’t happen because people just “get used to” babies dying, but the odds that a child will die is actually quite low nowadays, even in the developing world. In India, where I have the most experience, it’s measured in deaths per 1,000 live births, not 100, because it’s that’s rare. Additionally, because I don’t think death is nearly as bad as DALYs would have it, I looked a lot into parental mourning before choosing SMS reminders. I don’t have anything formal I wrote up I can point to (though I might at some point), but my research found that most parents, after the loss of a child, are depressed for around a year, with some tail ends of people who never appear to recover.
If it’s the metrics issue that’s leading to drug policy reform, I would recommend looking into preventing iron deficiency (through supplements or fortification) as an alternative. It’s more evidence based and iron deficiency causes massive unhappiness. Anecdotally I’ve had friends who transformed from sad grumpy monsters into happy productive members of society after realizing they were deficient. Additionally there’s evidence it increases income, increases IQ if taken during pregnancy, and decreases mortality in certain circumstances, so it’s pretty robust no matter the metrics you care about.
Lastly, I’ll admit that I haven’t read all of your posts / critiques of AMF’s effectiveness, so I’ll have to go and do that :)