A key question in the design of anti-poverty programs is to what extent they should be targeted. Empirical evaluations … based on an imperfect poverty classifier based on proxy means tests results in very distinct 'optimal' beneficiary shares … when these measures are used as a decision criterion. Implications from poverty simulations are sensitive to assumptions …

analyses of low-income populations. We focus on the Current Population Survey (CPS), the source of official poverty and … understates the effects of anti-poverty programs and changes our understanding of program targeting, often making it seem that … data rather than survey data alone, the poverty reducing effect of all programs together is nearly doubled while the effect …