A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
This paper intends to inform the effort of the Sri Lankan government to reform the targeting efficacy of its social protection programs, in particular, Samurdhi, which currently distributes benefits based on self-reported income. The paper develops...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/911001539090001831/A-Proxy-Means-Test-for-Sri-Lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30571 |
| Summary: | This paper intends to inform the effort
of the Sri Lankan government to reform the targeting
efficacy of its social protection programs, in particular,
Samurdhi, which currently distributes benefits based on
self-reported income. The paper develops a proxy means test
for Sri Lanka based on the Household Income and Expenditure
Survey 2016 and evaluates its performance for targeting
benefits of Samurdhi. The paper considers a range of models
and policy parameters that could be applied depending on
data availability and country preferences. The results
indicate that switching to a proxy means test could
considerably improve the targeting performance of Samurdhi
and would significantly improve the poverty impact of the
program. The analysis finds that the performance of the
proposed proxy means test model suffers when the
coefficients are estimated from samples smaller than 1,000
households. However, the analysis does not find a similar
loss of model performance when the model is estimated from
seasonal data, provided the sample size is sufficiently
large. The proposed model could be applied to targeting a
variety of safety net programs after validating and refining
the model by conducting a pilot survey. |
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