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Needs and Targeting

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  • Keen, Michael

Abstract

This paper shows that when--in the manner of the recent targeting literature--the resources available for poverty relief are allocated across heterogeneous groups so as to minimize a "well-behaved" index of aggregate poverty, the optimal response to an increase in the needs of some group may be to reduce the resources allocated to it. Necessary and sufficient conditions for optimally-targeted benefits to be inversely related to needs are established under two polar forms of poverty alleviation strategy (pure contingency and strict means-testing) and the wider methodological implications of this possibility discussed. Copyright 1992 by Royal Economic Society.

Suggested Citation

  • Keen, Michael, 1992. "Needs and Targeting," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(410), pages 67-79, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:102:y:1992:i:410:p:67-79
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    Cited by:

    1. David T. Johnson & Peter B. Dixon, 1999. "Australian Poverty Quantified by a Family‐Based Poverty Index," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(2), pages 103-114, June.
    2. Olivier Bargain & Olivier Donni, 2007. "A Theory of Child Targeting," Working Papers 200710, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    3. Kanbur, Ravi & Tuomala, Matti, 2016. "Groupings and the gains from tagging," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 53-63.
    4. Robin Boadway & Pierre Pestieau, 2006. "Tagging and redistributive taxation," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 83-84, pages 123-147.
    5. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2004. "Poverty Measures and Anti-Poverty Policy with an Egalitarian Constraint," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-12, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Alan D. Viard, 2001. "Some Results on the Comparative Statics of Optimal Categorical Transfer Payments," Public Finance Review, , vol. 29(2), pages 148-180, March.
    7. Miguel Székely, 1997. "Opciones de políticas para la paliación de la pobreza," Research Department Publications 4063, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    8. Miguel Székely, 1997. "Policy Options for Poverty Alleviation," Research Department Publications 4062, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    9. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2004. "Indicators of Inequality and Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-25, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Mukherjee, Diganta, 1998. "Optimal subsidy for the poor," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 313-319, December.
    11. Udo Ebert, 2010. "Equity‐regarding poverty measures: differences in needs and the role of equivalence scales," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 301-322, February.
    12. D. Jayaraj & S. Subramanian, 2005. "Assessing the ‘Agedness’ of A Population," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 343-371, July.
    13. Alari Paulus, 2016. "The antipoverty performance of universal and means-tested benefits with costly take-up," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/12, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    14. Murgai, Rinku & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Is a guaranteed living wage a good anti-poverty policy?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3640, The World Bank.
    15. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2004. "Social Groups and Economic Poverty: A Problem in Measurement," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-59, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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