References

142 | Revisiting Targeting in Social Assistance

23. Costs can also be recurrent or one-time capital investments. In the life of a social assistance program, there is an inverted U shape in the evolution of the costs of administration. The costs can be uneven—high startup costs initially spread over initially small coverage and then decreasing as share over time as the numerator decreases and the denominator increases; the periodic survey sweep model gives uneven costs. 24. See Tesliuc et al. (2014) for a good discussion of this issue and sample questionnaires for the special data collection that is needed to obtain the best estimates of costs. 25. In some areas of Burkina Faso and in rural Chad, when program administrators had collected data for all households in selected areas in the program registry to then apply the targeting method, the shares of administrative costs were 1.5 and 3.9 percent, respectively. These costs were much lower, at 0.4 percent in other areas of Burkina Faso and 1.4 percent in urban Chad, when household data were collected only from those who requested to participate (self-selection) in the program. In Niger, the authors compare two approaches: full data collection for all households in selected areas, and partial data collection after the community defines the pre-list of potential beneficiaries. The shares of administrative costs in total program costs were similar, 5.5 percent for the former and 4.3 percent for the latter. 26. These figures were obtained through an informal survey of World Bank staff leading projects supporting the development of these social registries in consultation with government officials. See annex 2D. 27. Devereaux et al. (2017). 28. In Mali, the unit cost of a questionnaire for the Registre Social Unifie (www .rsu.gouv.ml) collected by the Jigisemejiri program has dropped from US$20 in 2017–20 to US$10 today. 29. Turkey’s population was estimated at 78 million in 2015. 30. Turkey’s Integrated Social Assistance System Report, http://documents1 .worldbank.org/curated/en/515231530005107572/pdf/Turkey-SA-summary. pdf. 31. https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/radar/governo-tirou-13-milhao-de-beneficiarios -irregulares-do-bolsa-familia/.

References

Acosta, Pablo A., Phillippe Leite, and Jamele Rigolini. 2011. “Should Cash Transfers

Be Confined to the Poor? Implications for Poverty and Inequality in Latin

America.” Policy Research Working Paper 5875, World Bank, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/3642. Adato, Michelle. 2000. “The Impact of PROGRESA on Community Social

Relationships.” Final Report. International Food Policy Research Institute,

Washington, DC. https://www.ifpri.org/publication/impact-progresa-community -social-relationships. Attah, Ramlatu, Valentina Barca, Andrew Kardan, Ian MacAuslan, Fred Merttens, and Luca Pellerano. 2016. “Can Social Protection Affect Psychosocial

Unpacking the Empirics of Targeting in Low- and Middle-Income Countries | 143

Wellbeing and Why Does This Matter? Lessons from Cash Transfers in Sub-

Saharan Africa.” Journal of Development Studies 52 (8): 1115–31. https://www .tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220388.2015.1134777. Baird, Sarah, David McKenzie, and Berk Özler. 2018. “The Effects of Cash Transfers on Adult Labour Market Outcomes.” IZA Journal of Development and Migration 8 (22). https://izajodm.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40176-018-0131-9. Banerjee, Abhijit V., Rema Hanna, Gabriel E. Kreindler, and Benjamin A. Olken. 2017. “Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from

Cash Transfer Programmes.” World Bank Research Observer 32 (2): 155–84. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31221. Bastagli, Francesca, Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Luke Harman, Valentina Barca, Georgina

Sturge, Tanja Schmidt, and Luca Pellerano. 2016. “Cash Transfers: What Does the Evidence Say? A Rigorous Review of Programme Impact and of the Role of

Design and Implementation Features.” Overseas Development Institute, London. https://odi.org/en/publications/cash-transfers-what-does-the-evidence-say-a -rigorous-review-of-impacts-and-the-role-of-design-and-implementation -features. Baumberg, Ben. 2016. “The Stigma of Claiming Benefits: A Quantitative Study.”

Journal of Social Policy 45 (2): 181–99. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/stigma-of-claiming-benefits-a-quantitative-study/AF30092AE7D5B7C659798228B219F02C. Beegle, Kathleen, Aline Coudouel, and Emma Monsalve. 2018. Realizing the Full

Potential of Social Safety Nets in Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl .handle.net/10986/29789. Besley, Timothy, and Ravi Kanbur. 1990. “The Principles of Targeting.” DEC Working

Paper 385, World Bank, Washington, DC. Brown, Caitlin Susan, Martin Ravallion, and Dominique van de Walle. 2016. “A

Poor Means Test? Econometric Targeting in Africa.” Policy Research Working

Paper 7915, World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25814. Caldes, Natalia, David Coady, and John Maluccio. 2006. “The Cost of Poverty

Alleviation Transfer Programs: A Comparative Analysis of Three Programs in

Latin America.” World Development 34 (5): 818–37. https://EconPapers.repec .org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:34:y:2006:i:5:p:818-837. Castaneda, Tarcisio, and Kathy Lindert. 2005. “Designing and Implementing

Household Targeting Systems: Lessons from Latin America and the United

States.” Social Protection Discussion Paper Series No. 0526, World Bank,

Washington, DC. https://imagebank2.worldbank.org/search/6031977. CGD (Center for Global Development). 2015. “South Africa’s Child Support Grant.”

CGD, Washington, DC. http://millionssaved.cgdev.org/case-studies/south -africas-child-support-grant. Cornia, Giovanni, Richard Jolly, and Frances Stewart. 1987. Adjustment with a

Human Face. Clarendon Press. Daigneault, Pierre-Marc, Steve Jacob, and Maximilien Tereraho. 2012.

“Understanding and Improving the Take-up of Public Programs: Lessons Learned from the Canadian and International Experience in Human Services.”

International Journal of Business and Social Science I (3): 39–50. http://ijbssnet.com /view.php?u=http://ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_1_January_2012/5.pdf.

144 | Revisiting Targeting in Social Assistance

Delany, Aislinn, and Selwyn Jehoma. 2016. “Implementation of Social Grants:

Improving Delivery and Increasing Access.” In South African Child Gauge 2016, edited by Aislinn Delany, Selwyn Jehoma, and Lori Lake, 60–67. Cape Town:

Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town. http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/sites /default/files/image_tool/images/367/publication/2016/implementation-of -social-grants.pdf. Della Guardia, Anne, Milli Lake, and Pascale Schnitzer. Forthcoming. “Poverty

Targeting When Everyone Is Poor: The Unintended Consequences of Selective

Inclusion in Cash Transfer Programs.” World Bank, Washington, DC. Devereux, Stephen, Edoardo Masset, Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, Michael Samson,

Althea-Maria Rivas, and Dolf te Lintelo. 2017. “The Targeting Effectiveness of

Social Transfers.” Journal of Development Effectiveness 9 (2): 162–211. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2017.1305981. DSD, SASSA, and UNICEF (Department of Social Development of South Africa,

South African Social Security, and United Nations Children’s Fund). 2012. The

South African Child Support Grant Impact Assessment: Evidence from a Survey of

Children, Adolescents and Their Households. Pretoria: UNICEF South Africa. https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/media/1116/file/ZAF-South-African -child-support-grant-impact-assessment-2012.pdf. Gotcheva, Boryana, Aylin Isik-Dikmelek, Matteo Morgandi, Victoria Strokova,

Tomas Damerau, and Vojin Golubovic. 2013. “Activation and Smart Safety

Nets in Montenegro: Constraints in Beneficiary Profile, Benefit Design, and

Institutional Capacity.” World Bank, Washington, DC. Granlund, Stefan, and Tessa Hochfeld. 2020. “‘That Child Support Grant Gives Me

Powers’: Exploring Social and Relational Aspects of Cash Transfers in South

Africa in Times of Livelihood Change.” Journal of Development Studies 56 (6): 1230–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1650170. Grosh, Margaret, Carlo del Ninno, Emil Tesliuc, and Azedine Ouerghi. 2008. For

Protection and Promotion: The Design and Implementation of Effective Safety Nets.

Washington, DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle /10986/6582. Gubrium, Erika, and Sony Pellissery. 2016. “Antipoverty Measures: The Potential for Shaming and Dignity Building through Delivery Interactions.” International

Journal of Social Quality 6 (2):1–17. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper /Antipoverty-Measures%3A-The-Potential-for-Shaming-and-Gubrium -Pellissery/cd80a785964977f794bb8cb7b03ac5a2b8c8c6d1. Hanna, Reema, and Ben Olken. 2018. “Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted

Transfers: Anti-Poverty Programs in Developing Countries.” Journal of Economic

Perspectives 32 (4): 201–26. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep .32.4.201. ILO (International Labour Organization). 2014. Namibia Social Protection Floor Assessment.

Geneva: ILO. https://www.social-protection.org/gimi/gess/ShowRessource .action?ressource.ressourceId=47837. ILO (International Labour Organization) 2016. “Mongolia Child Money

Programme.” Social Protection Department, ILO, Geneva. https://www.ilo.org /wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-beijing/documents/publication/wcms_534930.pdf.

Unpacking the Empirics of Targeting in Low- and Middle-Income Countries | 145

Jaramillo, Miguel, and Alan Sánchez. 2011. Impacto del Programa Juntos sobre

Nutrición Temprana. Documento de Investigación 6, GRADE, Lima. http://www .grade.org.pe/en/publicaciones/1038-impacto-del-programa-juntos-sobre -nutricion-temprana/. Jones, Nicola, Rosana Vargas, and Eliana Villar. 2007. “Conditional Cash Transfers in Peru: Tackling the Multi-Dimensionality of Poverty and Vulnerability.” In

Social Protections Initiatives for Families, Women and Children: An Analysis of Recent

Experiences, edited by Alberto Minujin. New York: The New School with support from UNICEF. https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/1678.pdf. Kandpal, Eeshani, Pascale Schnitzer, and Modeste Daye. 2020. “The Effects of Cash

Transfers on Women’s Productive Activities.” World Bank, Washington, DC. Kaur, Supreet, Sendhil Mullainathan, Suanna Oh, and Frank Schilbach. 2018.

“Does Poverty Lower Productivity?” NBER Working Paper 28338, National

Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA. http://www.nber.org/papers /w28338. Kidd, Stephen, and Diloá Athias. 2020. “Hit and Miss: An Assessment of Targeting

Effectiveness in Social Protection.” Working Paper, Development Pathways,

London. https://www.developmentpathways.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019 /03/Hit-and-miss-long-report-.pdf. Kidd, Stephen, Diloá Athias, and Idil Mohamud. 2021. “Social Registries: A Short

History of Abject Failure.” Working Paper, Development Pathways, London. https://www.developmentpathways.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06 /Social-registries-a-short-history-of-abject-failure-June-1.pdf. Knox-Vydmanov, Charles. 2011. “The Price of Income Security in Older Age: Cost of a Universal Pension in 50 Low- and Middle-Income Countries.” Discussion

Paper, HelpAge International, London. https://www.helpage.org/silo/files/the -price-of-income-security-in-older-age.pdf. Kosec, Katrina, and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo. 2017. “Aspirations and the Role of Social

Protection: Evidence from a Natural Disaster in Rural Pakistan.” World

Development 97: 49–66. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii /S0305750X17301092. Leite, Phillippe, Tina George, Changqing Sun, Theresa Jones, and Kathy Lindert. 2017. “Social Registries for Social Assistance and Beyond: A Guidance Note and Assessment Tool.” Social Protection and Labor Discussion Paper No. 1704, World Bank, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org /handle/10986/28284. Lindert, Kathy, Colin Andrews, Chipo Msowoya, Boban Varghese Paul, Elijah

Chirwa, and Anita Mittal. 2018. “Rapid Social Registry Assessment: Malawi’s

Unified Beneficiary Registry.” Social Protection and Jobs Discussion Paper No. 1803, World Bank, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org /handle/10986/31012. Lindert, Kathy, Tina George Karippacheril, Inés Rodríguez Caillava, and Kenichi

Nishikawa Chávez. 2020. Sourcebook on the Foundations of Social Protection Delivery

Systems. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34044. Moffitt, Robert. 2015. “Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs: Introduction.”

Working Paper 21751, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge,

MA. https://www.nber.org/papers/w21751.

146 | Revisiting Targeting in Social Assistance

Oliveira, Victor, Laura Tiehen, Mark Prell, and David Smallwood. 2018. “Evolution and Implementation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the

United States.” In The 1.5 Billion People Question: Food, Vouchers, or Cash Transfers? edited by Harold Alderman, Ugo Gentilini, and Ruslan Yemtsov. Washington,

DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27907. OPM (Oxford Policy Management). 2014. “Qualitative Research and Analyses of the Economic Impacts of Cash Transfer Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa:

Lesotho Country Case Study Report.” Protection to Production, Food and

Agriculture Organization, Rome. Packard, Truman, Ugo Gentilini, Margaret Grosh, Philip O’Keefe, Robert Palacios,

David Robalino, and Indhira Santos. 2019. Protecting All: Risk Sharing for a

Diverse and Diversifying World of Work. Human Development Perspectives.

Washington, DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle /10986/32353. Perova, Elizaveta, and Renos Vakis. 2009. “Evaluating the Juntos Program in Peru:

Evidence from Non-Experimental Estimates.” World Bank, Washington, DC. Perova, Elizaveta, and Renos Vakis. 2012. “5 Years in Juntos: New Evidence on the

Program’s Short and Long-Term Impacts.” Economía (Departamento de

Economía, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) 35 (69). https://www .researchgate.net/publication /254441506 _5_Years_in_Juntos _New _Evidence_on_the_Program’s_Short_and_Long-Term_Impacts. Plagerson, Sophie, and Marianne Ulriksen. 2015. “Cash Transfer Programmes,

Poverty Reduction and Empowerment of Women in South Africa.” Conditions of Work and Equality Department, Gender, Equity and Diversity Branch,

International Labour Office, Geneva. https://www.researchgate.net/publication /285322517_Cash_transfer_programmes_poverty_reduction_and _empowerment_of_women_in_South_Africa. Republic of Ghana. 2018. “Ghana LEAP 1000 Programme: Endline Evaluation

Report.” Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Republic of

Ghana, Accra. https://www.unicef-irc.org/files/documents/d-4108-LEAP -1000-Report.pdf. Republic of Montenegro. 2013. “Law on Social and Child Welfare.” Ministry of

Labor and Social Welfare, Republic of Montenegro. http://ilo.org/dyn/natlex / natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=95155&p _count=96232&p _classification=04&p_classcount=2269. Roelen, Keetie. 2017. “Shame, Poverty and Social Protection.” IDS Working Paper

No. 489, CSP Working Paper No. 015, Centre for Social Protection, Institute of

Development Studies, Brighton, UK. https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications /shame-poverty-and-social-protection/. Roelen, Keetie. 2020. “Receiving Social Assistance in Low- and Middle-Income

Countries: Negating Shame or Producing Stigma?” Journal of Social Policy 39 (4): 705–23. https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/14772. Rosas, Nina, Samantha Zaldivar, and Mariana Pinzon-Caicedo. 2016. “Evaluating

Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net: Targeting Performance, Beneficiary

Profile, and Other Baseline Findings.” World Bank, Washington, DC. 10.13140/

RG.2.2.12257.97120.

Unpacking the Empirics of Targeting in Low- and Middle-Income Countries | 147

Schilbach, Frank, Heather Schofield, and Sendhil Mullainathan. 2016. “The

Psychological Lives of the Poor.” American Economic Review 106 (5): 435–40. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.p20161101. Schnitzer, Pascale, and Quentin Stoeffler. 2020. “Targeting in Practice: Evidence from Nine Programs in Africa.” Policy Research Working Paper 9816, World

Bank, Washington, DC. https://quentinstoeffler.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/2/6 /40265181/sahel_targeting_spj_bbl_11052020.pdf. Tesliuc, Emil, Lucian Pop, Margaret Grosh, and Ruslan Yemtsov. 2014. Income

Support for the Poorest: A Review of Experience in Eastern Europe and Central

Asia. Directions in Development: Human Development. Washington, DC:

World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18886. Thinkthrough. 2021. “Analytical Deep Dive on Social Security Administration

Registration in Nepal.” Draft Report, Thinkthrough Consulting, New Delhi,

India. UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund). 2020. Universal Child Benefit Case Studies:

The Experience of Mongolia. New York: UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org /media/70471/file/MNG-case-study-2020.pdf. World Bank. 2018. The State of Social Safety Nets 2018. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29115. World Bank. 2019. “Public Expenditure Review of Social Protection in Jamaica:

Principal Programs, Services, and Instruments.” World Bank, Washington, DC. Wright, Gemma, David Neves, Phakama Ntshongwana, and Michael Noble. 2015.

“Social Assistance and Dignity: South African Women’s Experiences of the

Child Support Grant.” Development Southern Africa 32 (4): 443–57. https://www .tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0376835X.2015.1039711. Yang, Lichao, Robert Walker, Jiexuan Chen, and Rui Zhang. 2019. “Universal Child

Benefits and Dignity and Shame.” UNICEF Child Benefits Research Project,

United Nations Children’s Fund, New York. https://socialprotection.org/sites /default/files/publications_files/Universal%20Child%20Benefits%20and%20

Dignity%20and%20Shame.pdf. Yemtsov, Ruslan, Maddalena Honorati, Brooks Evans, Zurab Sajaia, and Michael

Lokshin. 2018. Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Protection: Concepts and

Applications. Streamlined Analysis with ADePT Software. Washington, DC: World

Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29802.

3

Moving from General Abstraction toward Implementable Concepts in Stability and in Crisis

Margaret Grosh and Matthew Wai-Poi

Differentiating eligibility or benefits along some continuum of well-being is intuitive as a general idea, but in moving from an abstract vision to more specific concepts to implementable definitions and procedures, several topics require careful thought. This chapter provides a synopsis of the key issues. It presents the details in simple terms, distilling lessons from the vast body of work on poverty economics and survey science and connecting them to social assistance practice. The chapter’s high level of generality is meant to inform the general choices and rules that a social protection delivery system would aim to implement. Chapter 4 takes up greater details on the delivery system, chapter 5 discusses the implications for the choice of targeting method, and chapter 6 explains the how-to of data and inference.

The chapter is organized in two parts. The first part clarifies the concepts and presents a range of choices for action in stable environments. It is written around a series of questions important in designing and implementing social protection programs. For example, social protection for whom? Whose welfare is measured—an individual’s or a family’s? What defines a family? What is the system trying to measure? Where does it draw the line(s) between eligibility and not?