The pursuit of simplicity : Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?

Thumbnail Image
Date
2022
Authors
Michaelowa, Katharina
Panda, Sitakanta
Paul, Sourabh B.
Editors
Contact
Journal ISSN
Electronic ISSN
ISBN
Bibliographical data
Publisher
Series
DOI (citable link)
ArXiv-ID
International patent number
Link to the license
EU project number
Project
Open Access publication
Restricted until
Title in another language
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Publication type
Journal article
Publication status
Published
Published in
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization ; 200 (2022). - pp. 820-846. - Elsevier. - ISSN 0167-2681. - eISSN 1879-1751
Abstract
Governments in developing countries struggle to reach intended beneficiaries when targeting social transfers towards vulnerable populations. Rates of eligible individuals not receiving social transfers and ineligible individuals receiving them tend to be high, constraining the effectiveness of such anti-poverty programs. While interventions to incentivize or monitor local agents in charge of selecting beneficiaries are typically expensive, an important complementary and cost-effective approach could be to reform eligibility criteria to facilitate the selection of beneficiaries. Whether reforms should focus on reducing the number of rules, or selecting criteria which are easy to verify, or do both remains an unanswered question. We address this knowledge gap based on India’s social pension scheme for elderly poor. We find that making eligibility criteria easier to verify has the potential to achieve a substantial improvement in the targeting performance through a reduction in the exclusion error. Those who meet the relevant criteria have a much higher chance of actually becoming beneficiaries. Since eligibility criteria can be changed at low cost, this suggests a viable route for reform in many developing countries. However, a major caveat remains that criteria must sufficiently well reflect actual poverty if the more accurate selection of beneficiaries according to formal criteria shall also translate into actual poverty reduction.
Summary in another language
Subject (DDC)
330 Economics
Keywords
Targeting, eligibility criteria, proxy-means tests, old-age pensions, poverty, India
Conference
Review
undefined / . - undefined, undefined. - (undefined; undefined)
Cite This
ISO 690ASRI, Viola, Katharina MICHAELOWA, Sitakanta PANDA, Sourabh B. PAUL, 2022. The pursuit of simplicity : Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?. In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Elsevier. 200, pp. 820-846. ISSN 0167-2681. eISSN 1879-1751. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.06.003
BibTex
@article{Asri2022-08pursu-58003,
  year={2022},
  doi={10.1016/j.jebo.2022.06.003},
  title={The pursuit of simplicity : Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?},
  volume={200},
  issn={0167-2681},
  journal={Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization},
  pages={820--846},
  author={Asri, Viola and Michaelowa, Katharina and Panda, Sitakanta and Paul, Sourabh B.}
}
RDF
<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/58003">
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/46"/>
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-07-11T11:20:10Z</dcterms:available>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
    <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/58003/1/Asri_2-5bysyazll0166.pdf"/>
    <dc:creator>Asri, Viola</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>Attribution 4.0 International</dc:rights>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-07-11T11:20:10Z</dc:date>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">Governments in developing countries struggle to reach intended beneficiaries when targeting social transfers towards vulnerable populations. Rates of eligible individuals not receiving social transfers and ineligible individuals receiving them tend to be high, constraining the effectiveness of such anti-poverty programs. While interventions to incentivize or monitor local agents in charge of selecting beneficiaries are typically expensive, an important complementary and cost-effective approach could be to reform eligibility criteria to facilitate the selection of beneficiaries. Whether reforms should focus on reducing the number of rules, or selecting criteria which are easy to verify, or do both remains an unanswered question. We address this knowledge gap based on India’s social pension scheme for elderly poor. We find that making eligibility criteria easier to verify has the potential to achieve a substantial improvement in the targeting performance through a reduction in the exclusion error. Those who meet the relevant criteria have a much higher chance of actually becoming beneficiaries. Since eligibility criteria can be changed at low cost, this suggests a viable route for reform in many developing countries. However, a major caveat remains that criteria must sufficiently well reflect actual poverty if the more accurate selection of beneficiaries according to formal criteria shall also translate into actual poverty reduction.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/58003/1/Asri_2-5bysyazll0166.pdf"/>
    <dc:contributor>Paul, Sourabh B.</dc:contributor>
    <dcterms:title>The pursuit of simplicity : Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?</dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"/>
    <dc:contributor>Panda, Sitakanta</dc:contributor>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/58003"/>
    <dc:creator>Panda, Sitakanta</dc:creator>
    <dc:contributor>Michaelowa, Katharina</dc:contributor>
    <dc:creator>Paul, Sourabh B.</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Michaelowa, Katharina</dc:creator>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/46"/>
    <dcterms:issued>2022-08</dcterms:issued>
    <dc:contributor>Asri, Viola</dc:contributor>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
Internal note
xmlui.Submission.submit.DescribeStep.inputForms.label.kops_note_fromSubmitter
Contact
URL of original publication
Test date of URL
Examination date of dissertation
Method of financing
Comment on publication
Alliance license
Corresponding Authors der Uni Konstanz vorhanden
International Co-Authors
Bibliography of Konstanz
Yes
Refereed
Yes