Part 2: How to Effectively Target Development Transfers

Video

Published 05.12.17
Photo credit:
Jonathan McIntosh

Part 2: Ben Olken discusses the effectiveness of and trade-offs between different methods of targeting development assistance.

How should governments effectively target the poorest sections of society? Ben Olken (MIT) studies two approaches to target development assistance in Indonesia: automatic enrolment and self-targeting methods. The study finds that the self-targeting method worked better in reaching the poorest sections of the population. This is as beneficiaries who were ineligible for the transfer, but likely to fall through the cracks under the automatic enrolment approach, often self-selected out under the self-targeting method.