4 ms·
Ah, the classic paternalistic argument. It's deeply appealing to many people's preconceptions. But a growing body of experimental results call it into question.
by ef4 12y ago
Ah, the classic paternalistic argument. It's deeply appealing to many people's preconceptions. But a growing body of experimental results call it into question.
When you actually conduct the experiment -- a randomized controlled trial where you give some poor people cash and others in-kind services, the cash group outperforms.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- matthewmacleod 12y agoI'd be interested to see any of the research on this, if you have references. I suspect that in practice it's exceptionally hard to draw realistic conclusions from any such research, simply due to the confounding factor of "the wider social structure of the country".
- budu3 12y agoNPR had a brilliant episode where they discussed an experiment where money was given to a control group of people on Kenya. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/11/08/243967328/episode-494-what-happens-when-you-just-give-money-to-poor-people http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/11/08/243967328/episode-...
- gautambay 12y agoVery interesting (and certainly plausible)! Could you link to any of the experiments?
- tg3 12y agoHere is an article giving high level overview of a few of the experiments: https://decorrespondent.nl/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39 https://decorrespondent.nl/541/why-we-should-give-free-money...
- timr 12y agoFor those asking, here are some links that will start you down the path to reading all about said research: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-happens-when-you-just-give-money-to-poor-people http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-hap... http://freakonomics.com/2013/06/04/should-we-all-just-give-cash-directly-to-the-poor/ http://freakonomics.com/2013/06/04/should-we-all-just-give-c... http://freakonomics.com/2013/09/26/would-a-big-bucket-of-cash-really-change-your-life-full-transcript/ http://freakonomics.com/2013/09/26/would-a-big-bucket-of-cas... http://freakonomics.com/2013/11/27/fighting-poverty-with-actual-evidence-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/ http://freakonomics.com/2013/11/27/fighting-poverty-with-act... http://poverty-action.org/project/0522 http://poverty-action.org/project/0522 I'm glad I could help Google That For You.
- ef4 12y agoThank you for responding before I could and saving me the link gathering effort.
- kevinskii 12y agoYou made a very specific claim: When you actually conduct the experiment -- a randomized controlled trial where you give some poor people cash and others in-kind services, the cash group outperforms. None of the above links appear to support it. Please let me know if I'm mistaken, otherwise please do provide a relevant citation. Like many others here, I'm genuinely interested in learning about such a study.
- ef4 12y agohttp://econweb.tamu.edu/common/files/workshops/PERC%20Applied%20Microeconomics/2011_3_23_Jesse_Cunha.pdf http://econweb.tamu.edu/common/files/workshops/PERC%20Applie... http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387813001715 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387813...
- callmeed 12y agoSources on that?