Needs and Targeting

Michael Keen

Economic Journal, 1992, vol. 102, issue 410, 67-79

Abstract: This paper shows that when--in the manner of the recent targeting literature--the resources available for poverty relief are allocated across heterogeneous groups so as to minimize a "well-behaved" index of aggregate poverty, the optimal response to an increase in the needs of some group may be to reduce the resources allocated to it. Necessary and sufficient conditions for optimally-targeted benefits to be inversely related to needs are established under two polar forms of poverty alleviation strategy (pure contingency and strict means-testing) and the wider methodological implications of this possibility discussed. Copyright 1992 by Royal Economic Society.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0133%2819920 ... 0.CO%3B2-M&origin=bc full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: Needs and Targeting (1991)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:102:y:1992:i:410:p:67-79

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... al.asp?ref=0013-0133

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Journal is currently edited by Martin Cripps, Steve Machin, Woulter den Haan, Andrea Galeotti, Rachel Griffith and Frederic Vermeulen

More articles in Economic Journal from Royal Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing () and Christopher F. Baum ().