The GiveWell Blog

The importance of “gold standard” studies for consumers of research

There’s been some interesting discussion on how the world of social science experiments is evolving. Chris Blattman worries that there is too much of a tendency toward large, expensive, perfectionist studies, writing: each study is like a lamp post. We might want to have a few smaller lamp posts illuminating our path, rather than the…

Read More

Update on GiveWell’s web traffic / money moved

In addition to evaluations of other charities, GiveWell publishes substantial evaluation of itself, from the quality of its research to its impact on donations. We publish quarterly updates regarding two key metrics: (a) donations to recommended charities and (b) web traffic. This post is being published late due to staff focusing on updating GiveWell’s charity…

Read More