Can We Trust the Poor With Cash?
What do the poor do with cash handouts? There is mounting evidence from interesting new review papers that, at least in developing countries, cash grants do not increase purchases of…
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When Should We Give Cash Rather than In-Kind Gifts to Those in Need?
This post is taken from a blog post for the Center for Effective Philanthropy and contains excerpts from my new book Shrewd Samaritan: Faith, Economics, and the Road to Loving our…
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Why Shouldn’t We GiveDirectly?
(PRISM Magazine, April 2014–click to read full article at PrismMagazine.org.) One of the most exciting new ways for people to give to the poor in developing countries is through transferring cash…
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On Giving Tuesday: The Gift of Entrepreneurship
It’s Giving Tuesday, a day that has become prominent enough in our culture to make us either give, feel guilty about not giving, or come up with a powerful, self-justifying…
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5 Poverty Busters You Should Know
Because Their Work is Making a Difference Article in Christianity Today, December 29, 2015 As a development economist, people sometimes ask me, “What can I do to really make an…
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12 New Papers for Development Practitioners
Academic papers can be both obscure and intimidating for development practitioners and others whose interests are rooted in practical, everyday issues, especially academic papers written by economists. Trying to stay…
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New Ways to Think about Christmas Giving
If you think that the jing-jing of Christmas bells is being slowly replaced by the ca-ching of the Christmas cash register, you are not hearing strange noises. December 2013 retail…
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Cash With No Strings Attached?
This Story Appears in Christianity Today, December 2017 (Print Edition) One year, instead of buying my dad the usual unattractive necktie for Christmas, we bought him a goat. He loved…
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