Preferences for Community-based Targeting - Field Experimental Evidence from Zambia

Esther Schüring

World Development, 2014, vol. 54, issue C, 360-373

Abstract: Community-based targeting is frequently used in low-income countries to identify the poor. Yet evidence about its performance is inconclusive and factors of success are understudied. Drawing on controlled field experiments, this paper studies how individual targeting preferences translate into group outcomes and which determinants of progressiveness prevail in rural Zambia. It finds that individuals pursue poverty motives but act selfishly if not restrained. Egalitarianism and favoritism are not as pronounced as critics suggest. Even if individual and group allocations vary considerably, this does not result in individuals’ dissatisfaction. Better access to information and greater trust make targeting outcomes more progressive.

Keywords: community-based targeting; cash transfers; targeting preferences; Africa; Zambia; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X13002167
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
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:54:y:2014:i:c:p:360-373

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.10.004

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 ().