Working Paper: NBER ID: w25362
Authors: Abhijit Banerjee; Rema Hanna; Benjamin A. Olken; Sudarno Sumarto
Abstract: Many developing country governments determine eligibility for anti-poverty programs using censuses of household assets. Does this distort subsequent reporting of, or actual purchases of, those assets? We ran a nationwide experiment in Indonesia where, in randomly selected provinces, the government added questions on flat-screen televisions and cell-phone SIM cards to the targeting census administered to 25 million households. In a separate survey six months later, households in treated provinces report fewer televisions, though the effect dissipates thereafter. We find no change in actual television sales, or actual SIM card ownership, suggesting that consumption distortions are likely to be small.
Keywords: proxy-means testing; anti-poverty programs; Indonesia; randomized controlled trial
JEL Codes: H31; I38; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| proxy-means testing (question about flatscreen televisions) (C59) | reported ownership of televisions (L63) |
| reported ownership of televisions (L63) | actual consumption behavior (D12) |
| proxy-means testing (question about flatscreen televisions) (C59) | actual television sales (L63) |
| proxy-means testing (question about sim card ownership) (L96) | actual sim card ownership (L96) |