We show that the minimal forward (reverse) recursive unit tests of Banerjee, Lumsdaine and Stock ["Journal of Business and Economics Statistics" (1992) Vol. 10, pp. 271-288] are consistent against the alternative of a change in persistence from "I"(0) to "I"(1) ["I"(1) to "I"(0)]. However, these...

We introduce a new methodology to target direct transfers against poverty. Our method is based on estimation methods that "focus on the poor". Using data from Tunisia, we estimate 'focused' transfer schemes that highly improve anti-poverty targeting performances. Post-transfer poverty can be...