Targeting Assistance to the Poor

Abstract

The present chapter considers certain questions of anti-poverty policy in a somewhat abstract analytical setting. Should assistance (such as direct income transfers) be targeted to the poor, or should provisioning be universal? How does the cost of collecting information on who is poor, and how poor, mediate this discussion? If targeting is recommended, how might the measure of poverty employed dictate who among the poor is to be assisted, and to what extent? These questions are addressed in what follows.