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Identity Verification Standards in Welfare Programs: Experimental Evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Karthik Muralidharan
  • Paul Niehaus

    (UC San Diego, JPAL, NBER, and BREAD)

  • Sandip Sukhtankar

    (University of Virginia, JPAL, NBER, and BREAD)

Abstract

We study the impact of reforms that introduced more stringent, biometric ID requirements into India’s largest social protection program, using large-scale randomized and natural experiments. Corruption fell but with substantial costs to legitimate beneficiaries, 1.5–2 million of whom lost access to benefits at some point during the reforms. At the same time, adverse effects appear to have been driven primarily by decisions about the way the transition was managed, illustrating both the risks of rapid reforms, and how the impacts of promising new technologies can be highly sensitive to the protocols governing their use.

Suggested Citation

  • Karthik Muralidharan & Paul Niehaus & Sandip Sukhtankar, 2025. "Identity Verification Standards in Welfare Programs: Experimental Evidence from India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 372-392, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:107:y:2025:i:2:p:372-392
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01296
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    2. Laura Castell & Marc Gurgand & Clément Imbert & Todor Tochev, 2024. "Take-up of Social Benefits: Experimental Evidence from France," PSE Working Papers halshs-04720989, HAL.
    3. Swati Narayan, 2021. "Time for Universal Public Distribution System: Food Mountains and Pandemic Hunger in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(3), pages 503-514, December.
    4. Das, Satadru & Gadenne, Lucie & Nandi, Tushar & Warwick, Ross, 2023. "Does going cashless make you tax-rich? Evidence from India’s demonetization experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    5. Jaspars, S. & Sathyamala, C., 2021. "Digital bodies and digitalised welfare: North-South linkages in the politics of food assistance and social welfare," ISS Working Papers - General Series 687, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    6. Mengchen Dong & Jean-François Bonnefon & Iyad Rahwan, 2025. "Heterogeneous preferences and asymmetric insights for AI use among welfare claimants and non-claimants," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Sudha Narayanan & Shree Saha, 2020. "Take home rations (THR) and cash transfers for maternal and child nutrition: A Synthesis of evidence in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2020-039, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    8. Callen, Michael & Gulzar, Saad & Hasanain, Ali & Khan, Muhammad Yasir & Rezaee, Arman, 2020. "Data and policy decisions: Experimental evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    9. Stein, Merlin, 2021. "Re-evaluating RCTs with nightlights - An example from biometric smartcards in India," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 152, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
    10. Siwach, Garima & Paul, Sohini & de Hoop, Thomas, 2022. "Economies of scale of large-scale international development interventions: Evidence from self-help groups in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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