This is planet money from NPR.
There's this fundamental question in economics that has proven really hard to how to spend money to help people out of poverty.
The old school way of doing it was to fund programs that would support very particular things, buying cows for a village or giving people business training or building schools.
But over the past few decades, there has been a new idea.
What if the cure for people not having money was just giving them money, no strings attached?
The argument for this idea is people know their own situation best.
They can decide if they need a cow or training or a school.
They just need some money.
This idea has spawned a whole new set of questions that economists are trying to answer.
Like, if we do just give money, whats the best way to do that?
Do you just give it all at once or do you dole it out over time, like through what's called a universal basic income?
Well, a huge new study on giving cash was just released, and it's got a lot of answers.
Hello, and welcome to planet money.
I'm Dave Blanchard.
And I'm Amanda Aronczyk.
Today on the show, what have we learned about the best ways to give money to people who need it?
We go to Kenya and hear from gossipy neighbors.
We find out what people spend their money on when there are no strings attached.
And we discover how a cow might be a better bank than a bank.
At Planet money.