Chapter 7. Designing Social Protection Programs : Using Theory and Experimentation to Understand How to Help Combat Poverty

“Antipoverty” programs come in many varieties, ranging from multifaceted, complex programs to more simple cash transfers. Articulating and understanding the root problem motivating government and nongovernmental organization intervention are critical for choosing among many antipoverty policies or combinations thereof. Policies should differ depending on whether the underlying problem is about uninsured shocks, liquidity constraints, information failures, or some combination of all of the above. Experimental designs and thoughtful data collection can help diagnose the root problems better, thus providing better predictions for what antipoverty programs to employ in specific conditions and contexts. However, the more complex theories are likewise more challenging to test, requiring larger samples, and often more nuanced experimental designs, as well as detailed data on many aspects of household and community behavior and outcomes. We provide guidance on these design and testing issues for social protection programs, from how to target programs, to who should implement the program, and to whether and what conditions to require for program participation. In short, careful experimentation-designed testing can help provide a stronger conceptual understanding of why programs do or not work, thereby allowing one to ultimately make stronger policy prescriptions that further the goal of poverty reduction.