Targeting Impact versus Deprivation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Haushofer, Johannes; Niehaus, Paul; Paramo, Carlos; Miguel, Edward; Walker, Michael
• 署名单位: Cornell University; University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20221650
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 1936-1974
• 关键词: risk; transfers; economies; demand; scale; cash

摘要

A large literature has examined how best to target antipoverty programs to those most deprived in some sense (e.g., consumption). We examine the potential trade-off between this objective and targeting those most impacted by such programs. We work in the context of an NGO cash transfer program in Kenya, employing recent advances in machine learning methods and dynamic outcome data to learn proxy means tests that jointly target both objectives. Targeting solely on the basis of deprivation is not attractive in this setting under standard social welfare criteria unless the planner's preferences are extremely redistributive.(JEL C45, D63, I31, I38, L31, O15)