Evaluation of Anti‐Poverty Programs' Impact on Joint Disadvantages: Insights From the Philippine Experience. (27th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Seth, Suman; Tutor, Melba Verra
• Is Part Of: Review of income and wealth. Series 67:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 977
• Page End: 1004
• Publication Date: 2021-02-27
• Subjects: conditional cash transfers -- joint distribution -- multidimensional impact evaluation -- Philippines -- randomized control trial; National income -- Accounting -- Periodicals; 332.05
• DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12504
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0034-6586

Abstract

Abstract : Anti‐poverty programs increasingly target multiple outcomes to address current and future poverty. Conventional evaluation exercises, however, estimate programs' impact on outcomes separately. We present a framework, drawing from the counting approach, that captures the joint distribution of outcomes and allows evaluating program impact on the distribution of multiple outcomes. We apply the framework to analyze the Philippine conditional cash transfer program using an embedded randomized control trial survey. We observe that the program induced targeted behavioral changes by reducing overall noncompliances to conditionalities, but did not necessarily benefit the poorer families experiencing a larger number of simultaneous noncompliances. The overall positive impact is achieved by leaving the neediest behind. Our results show the valuable contribution of considering the joint distribution of outcomes in evaluating poverty alleviation programs.