Consumption-augmented asset indices: A tool to improve the targeting of the poor in rural areas

The ability to precisely identify who the poor are is key to increasing the effectiveness of targeted rural poverty reduction interventions. Traditionally, the poor are identified based on their income or consumption expenditures. However, collecting this type of data is often too complicated and expensive in developing countries. One of the most popular alternatives to target the poor is using indices that are based on households’ asset ownership and housing characteristics. Nevertheless, these indices often struggle to identify the extreme poor in rural areas. What can be done to overcome this problem? In this webinar, Diana Ngo will present a new method to enhance asset indices by including simple indicators related to the consumption of semi-durable goods and food. She will discuss how this method can improve the identification of the extreme poor in rural areas while implying little extra cost compared to standard asset indices. Ultimately, the proposed technique can increase the targeting performance and so the effectiveness of programmes and projects to reduce rural poverty.

SPEAKER:

Diana Ngo is Associate Professor of Economics at Occidental College.  Her current research focuses on measuring living standards in developing countries, evaluating pay-for-performance health systems reform, and examining school choice policies in large urban centers.  She currently teaches courses in Intermediate Micro-Economic Theory, Development Economics, and Health Economics. Prior to joining Occidental, she earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Berkeley and her S.B. in Biomedical Engineering from Harvard University. She has also worked as a consultant at the World Bank, a summer associate at the RAND Corporation, and a post-bachelor fellow at the Harvard Initiative for Global Health, where she published in journals such as The British Medical Journal, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet.