Timely Cash Lessons From 2,500 Years of Giving People Money

Every country provides some form of direct cash transfer to people in need, and this provision of money reaches hundreds of millions of people worldwide. But these provisions are often accompanied by heated debates on whether and how such assistance should be provided.

Seeking a way to better understand the current global debates on cash transfers, Timely Cash provides a historical overview of the concept. It explores the 2,500-year history of cash transfers to trace the origins of cash transfer programmes, tracks how they have evolved over time and spread across the world, and considers the longstanding debates that surround them.

By connecting these historical perspectives with the present day, identifying reoccurring patterns, and codifying diversity in experiences, Ugo Gentilini illuminates the roots of modern cash transfer dilemmas and reveals the surprising lessons the past can offer for these contemporary debates.

Ugo Gentilini, Lead Economist, World Bank

Ugo Gentilini is Lead Economist at the World Bank. With over two decades of professional experience in social protection research and practice, Gentilini has published extensively on various issues related to social assistance. His work includes Cash Transfers in Pandemic Times (World Bank, 2022), Exploring Universal Basic Income, with Margaret Grosh, Jamele Rigolini, and Ruslan Yemtsov (World Bank, 2020), and The 1.5 Billion People Question, with Harold Alderman and Ruslan Yemtsov (World Bank, 2017).