Giving poor people cash makes them happier — and their cashless neighbors miserable, por by Dylan Matthews (Vox):
There's a large empirical literature on cash transfer now, and the results are very positive, with various studies finding that just handing out money increases consumption, encourages investments in important assets like metal roofs, encourages more people to start working, boosts earnings, and doesn't lead to more spending on things like alcohol or tobacco. (...)
But one side question has gotten less attention: What happens to people in a given village who don't get the money? The evidence is tentative, but a couple of recent studies suggest that transfer programs can actually leave those people left out worse off.
This isn't an argument against cash — if anything, it's an argument for giving cash toeveryone, since people getting it are definitely left better off. But it does suggest that absolute income isn't the only way money makes you happy. How much people were making in relation to others, or relative income, matters too.
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