IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hic/wpaper/418.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Geographic poverty targeting in social protection programs: Evidence from a nationwide policy experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen O’Connell
  • Onur Altındağ
  • and Rim Achour

Abstract

We examine how allocating a fixed social assistance budget across localities using different prioritization rules affects both beneficiary selection and program effectiveness. By simulating each rule, we estimate program effects among marginal beneficiaries—those whose assistance varies across targeting strategies. The program reduces economic deprivation, with effect sizes ranging from 0.02 to 0.21 standard deviations. There are marked differences in the demographic backgrounds and economic constraints among marginal beneficiary populations, but program effects do not change substantially across targeting arms. We document sizable geographic variation in program effects, but limited ability to predict effectiveness using data typically available to implementers.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen O’Connell & Onur Altındağ & and Rim Achour, 2024. "Geographic poverty targeting in social protection programs: Evidence from a nationwide policy experiment," HiCN Working Papers 418, Households in Conflict Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:418
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hicn.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/HiCN-WP-418.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    antipoverty programs; forced displacement; lebanon.; poverty measurement; poverty targeting; refugees; social protection; unconditional cash transfers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hic:wpaper:418. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tilman Brück or the person in charge or the person in charge or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hicn.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.