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Incorporating Social Welfare in Program-Evaluation and Treatment Choice

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  • Debopam Bhattacharya
  • Tatiana Komarova

Abstract

The econometric literature on treatment-effects typically takes functionals of outcome-distributions as `social welfare' and ignores program-impacts on unobserved utilities. We show how to incorporate aggregate utility within econometric program-evaluation and optimal treatment-targeting for a heterogenous population. In the practically important setting of discrete-choice, under unrestricted preference-heterogeneity and income-effects, the indirect-utility distribution becomes a closed-form functional of average demand. This enables nonparametric cost-benefit analysis of policy-interventions and their optimal targeting based on planners' redistributional preferences. For ordered/continuous choice, utility-distributions can be bounded. Our methods are illustrated with Indian survey-data on private-tuition, where income-paths of usage-maximizing subsidies differ significantly from welfare-maximizing ones.

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  • Debopam Bhattacharya & Tatiana Komarova, 2021. "Incorporating Social Welfare in Program-Evaluation and Treatment Choice," Papers 2105.08689, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2105.08689
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lee, Ying-Ying & Bhattacharya, Debopam, 2019. "Applied welfare analysis for discrete choice with interval-data on income," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 361-387.
    2. Ahmad, Ehtisham & Stern, Nicholas, 1984. "The theory of reform and indian indirect taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 259-298, December.
    3. Bhattacharya, Debopam & Dupas, Pascaline, 2012. "Inferring welfare maximizing treatment assignment under budget constraints," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 167(1), pages 168-196.
    4. Mehtabul Azam, 2016. "Private Tutoring: Evidence from India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 739-761, November.
    5. Debopam Bhattacharya, 2015. "Nonparametric Welfare Analysis for Discrete Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 617-649, March.
    6. Banks, James & Blundell, Richard & Lewbel, Arthur, 1996. "Tax Reform and Welfare Measurement: Do We Need Demand System Estimation?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1227-1241, September.
    7. Debopam Bhattacharya, 2018. "Empirical welfare analysis for discrete choice: Some general results," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 571-615, July.
    8. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    9. Bhattacharya, D. & Dupas, P. & Kanaya, S., 2018. "Demand and Welfare Analysis in Discrete Choice Models under Social Interactions," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1885, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
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    Cited by:

    1. Maitra, Pushkar & Mitra, Sandip & Mookherjee, Dilip & Visaria, Sujata, 2022. "Evaluating the distributive effects of a micro-credit intervention," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Ganesh Karapakula, 2022. "An Axiomatic Framework for Cost-Benefit Analysis," Papers 2207.13033, arXiv.org.

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