IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1343.html

Targeting Humanitarian Aid Using Administrative Data: Model Design And Validation

Author

Listed:
  • Onur Altindag

    (Bentley University Department of Economics and Economic Research Forum)

  • Stephen D. O’Connell

    (Emory University Department of Economics and IZA Institute of Labor Economics)

  • Aytug Sasmaz

    (Harvard University Department of Government)

  • Zeynep Balcioglu

    (Northeastern University Department of Political Science)

  • Paola Cadoni

    (UNHCR Lebanon)

  • Matilda Jerneck

    (UNHCR Lebanon)

  • Aimee Kunze Foong

    (UNHCR Lebanon)

Abstract

We develop and assess the performance of an econometric targeting model for a large scale humanitarian aid program providing unconditional cash and food assistance to refugees in Lebanon. We use regularized linear regression to derive a prediction model for household expenditure based on demographic and background characteristics; from administrative data that are routinely collected by humanitarian agencies. Standard metrics of prediction accuracy suggest this approach compares favorably to the commonly used “scorecard” Proxy Means Test, which requires a survey of the entire target population. We confirm these results through a blind validation test performed on a random sample collected after the model derivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Onur Altindag & Stephen D. O’Connell & Aytug Sasmaz & Zeynep Balcioglu & Paola Cadoni & Matilda Jerneck & Aimee Kunze Foong, 2019. "Targeting Humanitarian Aid Using Administrative Data: Model Design And Validation," Working Papers 1343, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 Sep 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/publications/targeting-humanitarian-aid-using-administrative-data-model-design-and-validation/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://bit.ly/37GO2Ti
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dang, Hai-Anh H & Kilic, Talip & Hlasny, Vladimir & Abanokova, Kseniya & Carletto, Calogero, 2024. "Using Survey-to-Survey Imputation to Fill Poverty Data Gaps at a Low Cost: Evidence from a Randomized Survey Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 16792, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Dang, Hai-Anh H & Kilic, Talip & Abanokova, Kseniya & Carletto, Calogero, 2024. "Imputing Poverty Indicators without Consumption Data: An Exploratory Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 17136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Hai-Anh H. Dang & Peter F. Lanjouw, 2023. "Regression-based imputation for poverty measurement in data-scarce settings," Chapters, in: Jacques Silber (ed.), Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation, chapter 13, pages 141-150, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Aysegül Kayaoglu & Ghassan Baliki & Tilman Brück & Melodie Al Daccache & Dorothee Weiffen, 2023. "How to conduct impact evaluations in humanitarian and conflict settings," HiCN Working Papers 387, Households in Conflict Network.
    5. Pape, Utz & Verme, Paolo, 2023. "Measuring Poverty in Forced Displacement Contexts," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1245, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Salti, Nisreen & Chaaban, Jad & Moussa, Wael & Irani, Alexandra & Al Mokdad, Rima & Jamaluddine, Zeina & Ghattas, Hala, 2022. "The impact of cash transfers on Syrian refugees in Lebanon: Evidence from a multidimensional regression discontinuity design," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Beltramo, Theresa P. & Calvi, Rossella & De Giorgi, Giacomo & Sarr, Ibrahima, 2023. "Child poverty among refugees," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    8. Angela C. Lyons & Josephine Kass‐Hanna & Alejandro Montoya Castano, 2023. "A multidimensional approach to measuring vulnerability to poverty among refugee populations," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 2014-2045, October.
    9. Ibrahima Sarr & Hai-Anh H. Dang & Carlos Santiago Guzman Gutierrez & Theresa Beltramo & Paolo Verme, 2025. "Using Cross-Survey Imputation to Estimate Poverty for Venezuelan Refugees in Colombia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 207-251, March.
    10. Altındağ, Onur & O’Connell, Stephen D., 2023. "The short-lived effects of unconditional cash transfers to refugees," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Lyons, Angela C. & Montoya Castano, Alejandro & Kass-Hanna, Josephine & Zhang, Yifang & Soliman, Aiman, 2025. "A machine learning approach to assessing multidimensional poverty and targeting assistance among forcibly displaced populations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    12. Linden McBride & Christopher B. Barrett & Christopher Browne & Leiqiu Hu & Yanyan Liu & David S. Matteson & Ying Sun & Jiaming Wen, 2022. "Predicting poverty and malnutrition for targeting, mapping, monitoring, and early warning," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 879-892, June.
    13. Dang, Hai-Anh & Carletto, Calogero & Jolliffe, Dean, 2025. "Better tracking SDG progress with fewer resources? A call for more innovative data uses," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    14. Stephen O’Connell & Onur Altındağ & and Rim Achour, 2024. "Geographic poverty targeting in social protection programs: Evidence from a nationwide policy experiment," HiCN Working Papers 418, Households in Conflict Network.
    15. Theresa Beltramo & Hai-Anh Dang & Ibrahima Sarr & Paolo Verme, 2024. "Estimating poverty among refugee populations: a cross-survey imputation exercise for Chad," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 94-113, January.
    16. Moussa, Wael & Salti, Nisreen & Irani, Alexandra & Mokdad, Rima Al & Jamaluddine, Zeina & Chaaban, Jad & Ghattas, Hala, 2022. "The impact of cash transfers on Syrian refugee children in Lebanon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    17. Schneider, Jackson & O’Connell, Stephen D., 2025. "Gender differences in the adequacy of poverty-targeted food assistance programs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    18. Özler, Berk & Çelik, Çiğdem & Cunningham, Scott & Cuevas, P. Facundo & Parisotto, Luca, 2021. "Children on the move: Progressive redistribution of humanitarian cash transfers among refugees," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    19. Dang, Hai-Anh H & Nguyen, Cuong Viet, 2025. "Employing Data Imputation to Track Poverty and Welfare Trends over Extended Time Periods: An Application to a Poorer Country," IZA Discussion Papers 18236, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I39 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Other
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1343. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Namees Nabeel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.