A poor means test ? econometric targeting in Africa

Caitlin Susan Brown, Martin Ravallion, Dominique Van De Walle, Caitlin Susan Brown, Martin Ravallion and Dominique Van De Walle
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Caitlin Brown, Dominique van de Walle and Martin Ravallion

No 7915, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Proxy-means testing is a popular method of poverty targeting with imperfect information. In a now widely-used version, a regression for log consumption calibrates a proxy-means test score based on chosen covariates, which is then implemented for targeting out-of-sample. In this paper, the performance of various proxy-means testing methods is assessed using data for nine African countries. Standard proxy-means testing helps filter out the nonpoor, but excludes many poor people, thus diminishing the impact on poverty. Some methodological changes perform better, with a poverty-quantile method dominating in most cases. Even so, either a basic-income scheme or transfers using a simple demographic scorecard are found to do as well, or almost as well, in reducing poverty. However, even with a budget sufficient to eliminate poverty with full information, none of these targeting methods brings the poverty rate below about three-quarters of its initial value. The prevailing methods are particularly deficient in reaching the poorest.

Keywords: Inequality; Access of Poor to Social Services; Economic Assistance; Services&Transfers to Poor; Disability; Social Protections&Assistance; Poverty Diagnostics; Poverty Assessment; Poverty Lines; Poverty Monitoring&Analysis; Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping; Poverty Impact Evaluation; Employment and Shared Growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12-13
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Related works:
Journal Article: A poor means test? Econometric targeting in Africa (2018)
Working Paper: A Poor Means Test? Econometric Targeting in Africa (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7915

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