Policymakers use poverty maps to design and assess poverty programs. The accuracy of these maps, which is critical for targeting, depends largely on the nature of the instrument used to construct them. Recently, in response to tight budget constraints, many countries have begun to construct...

In the face of rising public deficits and shrinking public resources, geographical targeting may be a viable way to allocate resources for poverty alleviation in developing countries. Efficiency can be increased and leakage to the non poor reduced substantially by targeting increasingly smaller...