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The Percolation of Public Expenditure: Food Subsidies and the Poor in India and the Philippines

Author

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  • Jha, Skikha
  • Ramaswami, Bharat

Abstract

The paper measures the percolation of food subsidy expenditures to the poor by defining a metric that takes into account the depth and width of income transfer. The metric is applied to food subsidy expenditures in India and the Philippines, which operate similar in-kind transfer schemes. The emphasis in the literature has been on reducing inclusion errors. While the metric takes this into account it also captures non-targeting leakages coming from excess costs and fraud. The principal finding is that percolation is poor in both countries and the payoffs from reducing non-targeting leakages are large relative to lowering inclusion errors.

Suggested Citation

  • Jha, Skikha & Ramaswami, Bharat, 2012. "The Percolation of Public Expenditure: Food Subsidies and the Poor in India and the Philippines," India Policy Forum, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 8(1), pages 95-138.
    • Handle: RePEc:nca:ncaerj:v:8:y:2012:i:2012-1:p:95-138
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    File URL: https://www.ncaer.org/publication/india-policy-forum-2011-12
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Mehta, Aashish & Jha, Shikha, 2012. "Corruption, food subsidies, and opacity: Evidence from the Philippines," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 708-711.
    2. Klaus Abbink & Gaurav Datt & Lata Gangadharan & Digvijay Negi & Bharat Ramaswami, 2024. "Deadweight Losses or Gains from In-kind Transfers: Experimental Evidence," Working Papers 110, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    3. repec:ags:aaea22:335623 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Andaleeb Rahman, 2014. "Revival of Rural PDS: Expansion and Outreach," Working Papers id:5796, eSocialSciences.
    5. repec:ags:aaea22:335622 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ajay Bohtan & K. Mathiyazhagan & Prem Vrat, 2019. "Modeling the public distribution system: a PO-P approach," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 56(3), pages 1024-1066, September.
    7. Mehta, Aashish & Jha, Shikha, 2014. "Pilferage from opaque food subsidy programs: Theory and evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 69-79.
    8. Andaleeb Rahman, 2014. "Revival of rural PDS: Expansion and outreach," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2014-012, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Subsidy; In-kind Transfer; Targeting; Excess Cost; India; Philippines;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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