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Targeting Poverty under Complementarities: Evidence from Indonesia's Unified Targeting System

Author

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  • Tohari, Achmad

    (University of Western Australia)

  • Parsons, Christopher

    (University of Western Australia)

  • Rammohan, Anu

    (University of Western Australia)

Abstract

Combining nationally representative administrative and survey data with official proxy means testing models and coefficients, we evaluate Indonesia's three largest social programs. The setting for our evaluation is the launch of Indonesia's Unified Targeting system, an innovation developed to reduce targeting errors and increase program complementarities. Introducing a new method of evaluation under the condition of multiple programs, we show that households receiving all three programs are at least 30 percentage points better off than those receiving none. Importantly, the bias from failing to account for program complementarities is greater in magnitude than the benefits of receiving a single program.

Suggested Citation

  • Tohari, Achmad & Parsons, Christopher & Rammohan, Anu, 2017. "Targeting Poverty under Complementarities: Evidence from Indonesia's Unified Targeting System," IZA Discussion Papers 10968, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10968
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Tohari, Achmad & Parsons, Christopher & Rammohan, Anu, 2017. "Does Information Empower the Poor? Evidence from Indonesia's Social Security Card," IZA Discussion Papers 11137, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    complementarities; Indonesia; targeting; poverty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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