How Relevant is Targeting to the Success of an Antipoverty Program?

34 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 1, 2007

Abstract

Policy-oriented discussions often assume that "better targeting" implies larger impacts on poverty or more cost-effective interventions. The literature on the economics of targeting warns against that assumption, but evidence has been scarce. The paper begins with a critical review of the strengths and weaknesses of the targeting measures found in practice. It then exploits an unusually large micro data set for China to estimate aggregate and local-level poverty impacts of the country's main urban antipoverty program. Standard measures of targeting are found to be uninformative, or even deceptive, about impacts on poverty and cost-effectiveness in reducing poverty. In program design and evaluation, it would be better to focus directly on the program's outcomes for poor people than to rely on prevailing measures of targeting.

Keywords: Services & Transfers to Poor, Poverty Monitoring & Analysis, Population Policies, Poverty Impact Evaluation, Poverty Reduction Strategies

Suggested Citation

Ravallion, Martin, How Relevant is Targeting to the Success of an Antipoverty Program? (November 1, 2007). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4385, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1029500

Martin Ravallion (Contact Author)

Georgetown University ( email )

Washington, DC 20057
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
255
Abstract Views
1,618
Rank
218,188
PlumX Metrics