Targeting Social Transfers to the Poor in Mexico

David Coady and Susan Parker ()

No 09/60, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Mexico’s main social support program, Oportunidades, combines two methods to target cash to poor households: an initial self-selection by households who acquire knowledge about the program and apply for benefits, followed by an administrative determination of eligibility based on a means test. Self-selection improves targeting by excluding high-income households, while administrative targeting does so mainly by excluding middle-income households. The two methods are complementary: expanding program knowledge across households substantially increases applications from non-poor households, thus reinforcing the importance of administrative targeting. The paper shows that targeting can be further improved through redesigning the means test and differentiating transfers according to demographic characteristics.

Keywords: Transfer of real resources; Mexico; Social policy; Social safety nets; Data analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
Date: 2009-03-19
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