Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Muralidharan, Karthik; Niehaus, Paul; Sukhtankar, Sandip
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; University of Virginia
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141346
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 2895-2929
• 关键词: programs evidence; CORRUPTION; ENFORCEMENT; incentives; evasion

摘要

Antipoverty programs in developing countries are often difficult to implement; in particular, many governments lack the capacity to deliver payments securely to targeted beneficiaries. We evaluate the impact of biometrically authenticated payments infrastructure (Smartcards) on beneficiaries of employment (NREGS) and pension (SSP) programs in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, using a large-scale experiment that randomized the rollout of Smartcards over 157 subdistricts and 19 million people. We find that, while incompletely implemented, the new system delivered a faster, more predictable, and less corrupt NREGS payments process without adversely affecting program access. For each of these outcomes, treatment group distributions first-order stochastically dominated those of the control group. The investment was cost-effective, as time savings to NREGS beneficiaries alone were equal to the cost of the intervention, and there was also a significant reduction in the leakage of funds between the government and beneficiaries in both NREGS and SSP programs. Beneficiaries overwhelmingly preferred the new system for both programs. Overall, our results suggest that investing in secure payments infrastructure can significantly enhance state capacity to implement welfare programs in developing countries.