Working Paper: NBER ID: w19646
Authors: Dean Karlan; Bram Thuysbaert
Abstract: For policy purposes, it is important to understand the relative efficacy of various methods to target the poor. Recently, participatory methods have received particular attention. We examine the effectiveness of a hybrid two-step process that combines a participatory wealth ranking and a verification household survey, relative to two proxy means tests (the Progress out of Poverty Index and a housing index), in Honduras and Peru. The methods we examine perform similarly to one another by various metrics. They all target most accurately in the cases of the poorest and the wealthiest households but perform with mixed results among households in the middle of the distribution. Ultimately, given similar performance, the analysis suggests that costs should be the driving consideration in choosing across methods.
Keywords: targeting; poverty; participatory methods; Honduras; Peru
JEL Codes: C81; O12; O20
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| hybrid targeting process (O36) | identification of poorest and wealthiest households (I32) |
| hybrid targeting process (O36) | mixed results for those in the middle of the income distribution (D31) |
| verification step (Y20) | filter out wealthier households (G59) |
| PWR (L94) | broadly sorts households into poor and wealthy categories (G50) |
| verification step (Y20) | excludes wealthier households selected in PWR (R29) |