(Photo by Unsplash/Vu Nguyen)
In the early 2010s, GiveDirectly gave the poorest households in rural western Kenya big unconditional cash transfers (UCTs), roughly equivalent to a year’s income. A year later, the result was that people were happier and better fed. They’d bought tin roofs and cows and other good stuff, and didn’t waste money on bad stuff. In the short term, giving really poor people a bunch of money left them a lot better off...
