A Poor Means Test? Econometric Targeting in Africa / Caitlin Brown
Contributor(s): Resource type: Ressourcentyp: Buch (Online)Book (Online)Language: English Series: World Bank E-Library ArchivePublisher: Washington, D.C : The World Bank, 2016Description: 1 Online-Ressource (55 p)Additional physical formats: Erscheint auch als: A Poor Means Test? Econometric Targeting in Africa. Druck-Ausgabe Washington, D.C : The World Bank, 2016DOI: DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-7915Online resources: Summary: 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 poorestPPN: PPN: 172487165XPackage identifier: Produktsigel: ZDB-1-WBANo physical items for this record