[Question] Is there a list of causes that have been evaluated and rejected?

[Tyner🔸]

Dear Librarian,

I understand that early in givewell history the team considered poverty or health in rich countries and found these areas to be less cost effective than in poor countries. I imagine that many organizations go through a similar process. It would be interesting and useful to review these causes and evidence for rejection from many organizations.

Warmest regards

[Lizka]

I agree that collections of “we investigated a possible intervention/​focus area and decided not to go for it for XYZ reasons” could be a really useful resource.

It’s also probably worth emphasizing that there aren’t causes that are universally rejected by EA as a community or movement. (As you say, this might be organization-specific: some organizations will have decided to focus on some “causes”—specific risks, or specific philosophies or approaches to improving the world—over others.)

I don’t have a good answer to this, but I will say that the following two tags could have useful or relevant materials for approaching these questions:

• Cause candidates

• Less-discussed causes

(Not answering on behalf of the librarian program.)