A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa

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 ta...

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Main Authors:	Brown, Caitlin, Ravallion, Martin, van de Walle, Dominique
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	TARGETING OF SOCIAL TRANSFERS PROXY MEANS TEST SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL PROGRAMS poverty cash transfers means test targeting
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/484991481639919564/A-poor-means-test-econometric-targeting-in-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25814

id	okr-10986-25814
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-258142021-06-08T14:42:46Z A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa Brown, Caitlin Ravallion, Martin van de Walle, Dominique TARGETING OF SOCIAL TRANSFERS PROXY MEANS TEST SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL PROGRAMS poverty cash transfers means test targeting 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. 2017-01-05T22:05:08Z 2017-01-05T22:05:08Z 2016-12 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/484991481639919564/A-poor-means-test-econometric-targeting-in-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25814 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7915 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	TARGETING OF SOCIAL TRANSFERS PROXY MEANS TEST SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL PROGRAMS poverty cash transfers means test targeting
spellingShingle	TARGETING OF SOCIAL TRANSFERS PROXY MEANS TEST SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL PROGRAMS poverty cash transfers means test targeting Brown, Caitlin Ravallion, Martin van de Walle, Dominique A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7915
description	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.
format	Working Paper
author	Brown, Caitlin Ravallion, Martin van de Walle, Dominique
author_facet	Brown, Caitlin Ravallion, Martin van de Walle, Dominique
author_sort	Brown, Caitlin
title	A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa
title_short	A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa
title_full	A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa
title_fullStr	A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa
title_full_unstemmed	A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa
title_sort	poor means test? : econometric targeting in africa
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/484991481639919564/A-poor-means-test-econometric-targeting-in-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25814
_version_	1764460217141035008

A Poor Means Test? : Econometric Targeting in Africa

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