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 …

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 …

Poverty maps are a useful tool for the targeting of social programs on areas with high concentrations of poverty …. However, a static focus on poverty ignores the temporal dimension of poverty. Thus, current nonpoor households still face … substantial welfare volatility and are at risk of becoming poor in the face of shocks. We combine the methods of poverty mapping …