New Delhi, June 17 -- Nobel laureate and economist Abhijit Banerjee has a clear message. Giving 'free' money to the poor works. It does not make them lazy. It does not create dependency. It transforms lives. He shared these views in a candid conversation with podcaster Raj Shamani on YouTube.

Abhijit Banerjee did not speak from theory alone. He pointed to a sweeping meta-analysis conducted before USAID had been shut down. That study combined findings from 140 separate research projects. The central question was straightforward: Do freebies make poor people work less?

The answer was unambiguous. "They found that people who get freebies work slightly more," Banerjee said. "Not much more, but slightly more. Not less."

He stressed the sign...