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...

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Main Authors:	Sebastian, Ashwini, Shivakumaran, Shivapragasam, Silwal, Ani Rudra, Newhouse, David, Walker, Thomas, Yoshida, Nobuo
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	POVERTY CONSUMPTION SAFETY NETS WELFARE TARGETING PROXY MEANS TEST
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/911001539090001831/A-Proxy-Means-Test-for-Sri-Lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30571

id	okr-10986-30571
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-305712021-11-15T12:22:22Z A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka Sebastian, Ashwini Shivakumaran, Shivapragasam Silwal, Ani Rudra Newhouse, David Walker, Thomas Yoshida, Nobuo POVERTY CONSUMPTION SAFETY NETS WELFARE TARGETING PROXY MEANS TEST 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. 2018-10-16T18:44:30Z 2018-10-16T18:44:30Z 2018-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/911001539090001831/A-Proxy-Means-Test-for-Sri-Lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30571 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8605 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 South Asia Sri Lanka
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	POVERTY CONSUMPTION SAFETY NETS WELFARE TARGETING PROXY MEANS TEST
spellingShingle	POVERTY CONSUMPTION SAFETY NETS WELFARE TARGETING PROXY MEANS TEST Sebastian, Ashwini Shivakumaran, Shivapragasam Silwal, Ani Rudra Newhouse, David Walker, Thomas Yoshida, Nobuo A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
geographic_facet	South Asia Sri Lanka
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8605
description	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.
format	Working Paper
author	Sebastian, Ashwini Shivakumaran, Shivapragasam Silwal, Ani Rudra Newhouse, David Walker, Thomas Yoshida, Nobuo
author_facet	Sebastian, Ashwini Shivakumaran, Shivapragasam Silwal, Ani Rudra Newhouse, David Walker, Thomas Yoshida, Nobuo
author_sort	Sebastian, Ashwini
title	A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
title_short	A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
title_full	A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
title_fullStr	A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed	A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka
title_sort	proxy means test for sri lanka
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/911001539090001831/A-Proxy-Means-Test-for-Sri-Lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30571
_version_	1764472411772682240

A Proxy Means Test for Sri Lanka

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