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 …

This study assesses the redistributive effects of fiscal policy in Mali and Niger. Fiscal policy is poverty increasing … three deciles, respectively). Although existing direct fiscal transfers have poverty-reducing effects, they are too small …