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Targeting the Poor and Smallholder Farmers Empirical Evidence from Malawi

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  • Houssou, Nazaire
  • Zeller, Manfred

Abstract

The recent international financial crisis and the steady decrease in development assistance have put many poor countries under increasing pressure to target more accurately their public spendings at the poor and the population in need. However, further progress is hampered by the lack of accurate and operationally reliable methods for identifying the targeted population affected by poverty. Therefore, this paper develops low cost and fairly accurate models for improving the targeting efficiency of development policies. Using household-level survey data from Malawi, this research applies various econometric methods along with out-of-sample tests to develop operational poverty targeting models for the country. Though there is a scope for further improvements, the results show that the developed models can considerably improve the poverty outreach of development policies compared to the currently used targeting mechanisms in the country. Likewise, this research can be replicated in other developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Houssou, Nazaire & Zeller, Manfred, 2010. "Targeting the Poor and Smallholder Farmers Empirical Evidence from Malawi," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 49(4), pages 1-18.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:qjiage:155557
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.155557
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ravallion, Martin, 2007. "How relevant is targeting to the success of an antipoverty program ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4385, The World Bank.
    2. World Bank, 2007. "Malawi : Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, Investing in Our Future," World Bank Publications - Reports 7555, The World Bank Group.
    3. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Jayne, Thomas S., 2009. "Do Fertilizer Subsidies Affect the Demand for Commercial Fertilizer? An Example from Malawi," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51606, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. World Bank, 2007. "Malawi - Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment : Investing in Our Future," World Bank Publications - Reports 7909, The World Bank Group.
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    7. World Bank, 2007. "Malawi Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment : Investing in Our Future, Synthesis Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 7557, The World Bank Group.
    8. Jonah B. Gelbach & Lant H. Pritchett, 2000. "Indicator targeting in a political economy: Leakier can be better," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 113-145.
    9. Wodon, Quentin T., 1997. "Targeting the poor using ROC curves," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 2083-2092, December.
    10. Shaohua Chen & Martin Ravallion, 2010. "The Developing World is Poorer than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1577-1625.
    11. Zeller, Manfred & Sharma, Manohar & Henry, Carla & Lapenu, Cecile, 2006. "An operational method for assessing the poverty outreach performance of development policies and projects: Results of case studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 446-464, March.
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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Community/Rural/Urban Development; Food Security and Poverty; International Development; Political Economy; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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