Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (55 p)
Series Statement:
World Bank E-Library Archive
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Brown, Caitlin A Poor Means Test? Econometric Targeting in Africa
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
DOI:
10.1596/1813-9450-7915
URL:
Volltext
(Deutschlandweit zugänglich)
Permalink
