Geographic Inequity in a Decentralized Anti-Poverty Program : A Case Study of China

• Tác giả: Martin Ravallion
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 591.95 Specific topics in natural history of animals
• Thông tin xuất bản: World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 303676
• Chủ đề: 1. ABSOLUTE POVERTY; 2. ABSOLUTE VALUE; 3. ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS; 4. ADMINISTRATIVE DATA; 5. AMOUNT OF INCOME

Tóm tắt

The central governments of many developing countries have chosen to decentralize their anti-poverty programs, in the expectation that local agents are better informed about local needs. The paper shows that this potential advantage of decentralized eligibility criteria can come at a large cost, to the extent that the induced geographic inequities undermine performance in reaching the income- poor nationally. These issues are studied empirically for (probably) the largest transfer-based poverty program in the world, namely China's Di Bao program, which aims to assure a minimum income through means-tested transfers. Poor municipalities are found to adopt systematically lower eligibility thresholds, reducing the program's ability to reach poor areas, and generating considerable horizontal inequity.