The authors set out a general equilibrium model for the evaluation of a domestically financed transfer program, which helps to combine the results from a computable general equilibrium model with disaggregated household data.Using a Mexican cash transfer program as an illustration, they use the...

The authors evaluate the size of the welfare losses from using alternative “imperfect” welfare indicators as substitutes for the conventionally preferred consumption indicator. They find that whereas the undercoverage and leakage welfare indices always suggest substantial losses, and the...

"...There are sharply divergent views as to how much narrowly targeted interventions actually benefit the poor. These result from differing assessments of three issues: whether better targeting outcomes are likely to be achieved, whether such methods are cost-effective, and whether the living...

This paper is concerned with the issue of the most cost-effective way of improving access to education for poor households in developing countries. We consider two alternatives: (1) extensive expansion of the school system (i.e., bringing education to the poor) and (2) subsidizing investment in...

"This paper proposes and implements a methodology for a detailed, comparative analysis of the level and structure of costs for three similar poverty alleviation programs in Latin America: the Programa Nacional de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA) in Mexico, the Programa de Asignación...

"The use of means testing for determining eligibility has become increasingly popular in developing countries wishing to improve the targeting performance of their social safety net programs. However, past experience shows that means testing often reduces program participation of eligible...

Using both national-sample and program-level census survey data, we evaluate the distributional power of Mexico's Programa Nacional de Educacion, Salud y Alimentacion (PROGRESA) transfers using the so-called distributional characteristic.These transfers are targeted both geographically at...

"This paper reviews issues highlighted in the literature on the performance of commonly found social safety net programs in developing countries. It makes particular reference to food subsidies (universal and administratively targeted), public works schemes, and targeted human capital subsidies....

The paper shows how the so-called distributional characteristic of a policy instrument can be additively decomposed into two components; one that captures the targeting efficiency of the instrument, the other its redistributive efficiency. Using these measures, the paper provides an...