Can cash grow an entire economy? The next frontier of cash research

Over the next two years, more than 120,000 people in one of Malawi's poorest rural districts will receive a one-time cash payment totalling roughly 85% of the local economy, proportionally, like giving every adult in the US a $114,000 check. It's the largest study ever run on what cash does to a whole local economy.

In this episode, we’re joined by guest host Caitlin Tulloch, GiveDirectly's Senior Director of Research, and economist Dean Karlan, professor at Northwestern, founder of Innovations for Poverty Action, and former Chief Economist at USAID.

Caitlin and Dean discuss a long-running debate over whether household-level programs can drive economy-wide growth, what we know so far about the cash’s “macro” impacts, and whether cash at this scale could be a credible use of the wealth emerging from AI.