The (lack of) distortionary effects of proxy-means tests: Results from a nationwide experiment in Indonesia
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The lack of distortionary effects.pdf
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1.05 MB
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Author(s)
Banerjee, Abhijit
Hanna, Rema
Olken, Benjamin A.
Sumarto, Sudarno
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Journal of Public Economics Plus
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Abhijit Banerjee, Rema Hanna, Benjamin A. Olken, Sudarno Sumarto, The (lack of) distortionary effects of proxy-means tests: Results from a nationwide experiment in Indonesia, Journal of Public Economics Plus, Volume 1, 2020.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Many developing country governments determine eligibility for anti-poverty programs using censuses of household assets. Does this distort subsequent reporting of, or actual purchases of, those assets? We ran a nationwide experiment in Indonesia where, in randomly selected provinces, the government added questions on flat-screen televisions and cell-phone SIM cards to the targeting census administered to 25 million households. In a separate survey six months later, households in treated provinces report fewer televisions, though the effect dissipates thereafter. We find no change in actual television sales, or reported or actual SIM card ownership, suggesting that consumption distortions are likely small.
Subjects
General Medicine
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubecp.2020.100001
