We examine the consequences of underreporting of transfer programs in household survey data for several prototypical analyses of low-income populations. We focus on the Current Population Survey (CPS), the source of official poverty and inequality statistics, but provide evidence that our...

The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) - the largest food subsidy program in India - has been a dismal failure in targeting the poor. The present paper examines its performance in three Indian states - Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, based on primary data collected for this...