Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger
The methods to select safety net beneficiaries are the subject of frequent policy debates. This paper presents the results from a randomized experiment analyzing how efficiency, legitimacy, and short-term program effectiveness vary across widely us...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/387791524060631076/Efficiency-legitimacy-and-impacts-of-targeting-methods-evidence-from-an-experiment-in-Niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29714 |
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okr-10986-297142021-06-08T14:42:45Z Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger Premand, Patrick Schnitzer, Pascale TARGETING CASH TRANSFERS SOCIAL PROGRAM SAFETY NETS POVERTY EFFECTIVENESS RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS PROXY-MEANS TEST FOOD SECURITY WELFARE BENCHMARKS The methods to select safety net beneficiaries are the subject of frequent policy debates. This paper presents the results from a randomized experiment analyzing how efficiency, legitimacy, and short-term program effectiveness vary across widely used targeting methods. The experiment was embedded in the roll-out of a national cash transfer program in Niger. Eligible villages were randomly assigned to have beneficiary households selected through community-based targeting, a proxy-means test, or a formula designed to identify the food-insecure. Proxy-means testing is found to outperform other methods in identifying households with lower consumption per capita. The methods perform similarly against other welfare benchmarks. Legitimacy is high across all methods, but local populations have a slight preference for formula-based approaches. Manipulation and information imperfections are found to affect community-based targeting, although triangulation across multiple selection committees mitigates the related risks. Finally, short-term program impacts on food security are largest among households selected by proxy-means testing. Overall, the differences in performance across targeting methods are small relative to the overall level of exclusion stemming from limited funding for social programs. 2018-04-20T15:33:26Z 2018-04-20T15:33:26Z 2018-04-18 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/387791524060631076/Efficiency-legitimacy-and-impacts-of-targeting-methods-evidence-from-an-experiment-in-Niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29714 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8412 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Niger |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
TARGETING CASH TRANSFERS SOCIAL PROGRAM SAFETY NETS POVERTY EFFECTIVENESS RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS PROXY-MEANS TEST FOOD SECURITY WELFARE BENCHMARKS |
| spellingShingle |
TARGETING CASH TRANSFERS SOCIAL PROGRAM SAFETY NETS POVERTY EFFECTIVENESS RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS PROXY-MEANS TEST FOOD SECURITY WELFARE BENCHMARKS Premand, Patrick Schnitzer, Pascale Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Niger |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8412 |
| description |
The methods to select safety net
beneficiaries are the subject of frequent policy debates.
This paper presents the results from a randomized experiment
analyzing how efficiency, legitimacy, and short-term program
effectiveness vary across widely used targeting methods. The
experiment was embedded in the roll-out of a national cash
transfer program in Niger. Eligible villages were randomly
assigned to have beneficiary households selected through
community-based targeting, a proxy-means test, or a formula
designed to identify the food-insecure. Proxy-means testing
is found to outperform other methods in identifying
households with lower consumption per capita. The methods
perform similarly against other welfare benchmarks.
Legitimacy is high across all methods, but local populations
have a slight preference for formula-based approaches.
Manipulation and information imperfections are found to
affect community-based targeting, although triangulation
across multiple selection committees mitigates the related
risks. Finally, short-term program impacts on food security
are largest among households selected by proxy-means
testing. Overall, the differences in performance across
targeting methods are small relative to the overall level of
exclusion stemming from limited funding for social programs. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Premand, Patrick Schnitzer, Pascale |
| author_facet |
Premand, Patrick Schnitzer, Pascale |
| author_sort |
Premand, Patrick |
| title |
Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger |
| title_short |
Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger |
| title_full |
Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger |
| title_fullStr |
Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Efficiency, Legitimacy and Impacts of Targeting Methods : Evidence from an Experiment in Niger |
| title_sort |
efficiency, legitimacy and impacts of targeting methods : evidence from an experiment in niger |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/387791524060631076/Efficiency-legitimacy-and-impacts-of-targeting-methods-evidence-from-an-experiment-in-Niger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29714 |
| _version_ |
1764470070960979968 |