by guest blogger Franck Wiebe, Chief Economist at the Millennium Challenge Corporation In the face of particularly senseless uses of foreign assistance, aid workers sometimes say “it would have been better to drop the money out of a helicopter” to convey how bad programs waste money.

Cash Transfers are less dramatic (and possibly less efficient) than throwing money from a helicopter, but CTs are increasingly accepted as a standard aid mechanism. Their beauty is their simplicity – simply give poor people what they need: more money so they can decide what they need most. Moreover, their likely impact on welfare is easily assessed, because the benefits can be quantified and tracked.