Targeting the Poor: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2012
Volume: 102
Issue: 4
Pages: 1206-40

Score contribution per author:

1.609 = (α=2.01 / 5 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper reports an experiment in 640 Indonesian villages on three approaches to target the poor: proxy means tests (PMT), where assets are used to predict consumption; community targeting, where villagers rank everyone from richest to poorest; and a hybrid. Defining poverty based on PPP$2 per capita consumption, community targeting and the hybrid perform somewhat worse in identifying the poor than PMT, though not by enough to significantly affect poverty outcomes for a typical program. Elite capture does not explain these results. Instead, communities appear to apply a different concept of poverty. Consistent with this finding, community targeting results in higher satisfaction. (JEL C93, I32, I38, O12, O15, O18, R23)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:102:y:2012:i:4:p:1206-40
Journal Field
General
Author Count
5
Added to Database
2026-01-24