Optimal targeting under budget constraints in a humanitarian context

Paolo Verme and Chiara Gigliarano

World Development, 2019, vol. 119, issue C, 224-233

Abstract: The paper uses Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and related indexes to determine the optimal targeting strategy of a food voucher program for refugees. Estimations focus on the 2014 food voucher administered by the World Food Program to Syrian refugees in Jordan using data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The paper shows how to use ROC curves to optimize targeting using coverage rates, budgets, or poverty lines as guiding principles to increase the overall efficiency of a program. As humanitarian organizations operate under increasing budget constraints and increasing demands for efficiency, the proposed approach addresses both concerns.

Keywords: Food vouchers; Refugees; Receiver Operating Characteristics curves; Targeting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 I32 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17304059
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Optimal targeting under budget constraints in a humanitarian context (2017)
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:eee:wdevel:v:119:y:2019:i:c:p:224-233

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.012

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

More articles in World Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().