Abstract
This article reviews the issues and evidence concerning a class of policies that aim to reduce poverty by providing direct current relief to those in need and/or by compensating for market and governmental failures that help perpetuate poverty. The article focuses on programmes found in developing countries. Poverty proxies or self-targeting mechanisms are typically used and the specific policies discussed include contingent transfers, community-based programmes, social funds and workfare programmes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Aghion, P., E. Caroli, and C. Garcia-Penalosa. 1999. Inequality and economic growth: The perspectives of the new growth theories. Journal of Economic Literature 37: 1615–1660.
Alderman, H. 1987. Allocation of goods through non-price mechanisms: Evidence on distribution by willingness to wait. Journal of Development Economics 25: 105–124.
Banerjee, A., and A. Newman. 1994. Poverty, incentives and development. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 84: 211–215.
Bardhan, P., and D. Mookherjee. 2000. Capture and governance at local and national levels. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 90: 135–139.
Bardhan, P., S. Bowles, and H. Gintis. 2000. Wealth inequality, wealth constraints and economic performance. In Handbook of income distribution, vol. 1, ed. A. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Behrman, J., Sengupta, P. and Todd, P. 2002. Progressing through PROGRESSA: An impact assessment of a school subsidy program. Mimeo: University of Pennsylvania.
Bénabou, R. 1993. Workings of a city: Location, education and production. Quarterly Journal of Economics 108: 619–652.
Bénabou, R. 1996. Inequality and growth. In National Bureau of Economic Research macroeconomics annual, ed. B. Bernanke and J. Rotemberg. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Besley, T., and S. Coate. 1992. Workfare vs. welfare: Incentive arguments for work requirements in poverty alleviation programs. American Economic Review 82: 249–261.
Besley, T., and R. Kanbur. 1993. Principles of targeting. In Including the poor, ed. M. Lipton and J. van der Gaag. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Besley, T., R. Pande, L. Rahman, and V. Rao. 2004. The politics of public good provision: Evidence from Indian local governments. Journal of the European Economic Association 2: 416–426.
Binswanger, H., K. Deininger, and G. Feder. 1995. Power, distortions, revolt and reform in agricultural and land relations. In Handbook of development economics, vol. 3, ed. J. Behrman and T. Srinivasan. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Bowles, S., and H. Gintis. 1996. Efficient redistribution: New rules for markets, states and communities. Politics and Society 24: 307–342.
Coady, D., M. Grosh, and J. Hoddinott. 2004. Targeting outcomes redux. World Bank Research Observer 19: 61–86.
Das, J., Q.-T. Do, and B. Ozler. 2004. A welfare analysis of conditional cash transfer schemes: Implications for policy. World Bank Research Observe 20: 57–80.
Dasgupta, P. 1993. An inquiry into well-being and destitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Datt, G., and M. Ravallion. 1994. Transfer benefits from public works employment: Evidence from rural India. Economic Journal 104: 1346–1369.
Drèze, J., and A. Sen. 1989. Hunger and public action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Duflo, E. 2003. Grandmothers and granddaughters: Old age pension and intrahousehold allocation in South Africa. World Bank Economic Review 17: 1–26.
Durlauf, S. 1996. A theory of persistent income inequality. Journal of Economic Growth 1: 75–93.
Elbers, C., P. Lanjouw, and J. Lanjouw. 2003. Micro-level estimation of poverty and inequality. Econometrica 71: 355–364.
Engerman, S. and K. Sokoloff. 2005. Colonialism, inequality and long-run paths of development. Working Paper No. 11057. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Gaiha, R. 1996. How dependent are the rural poor on employment guarantee scheme in India? Journal of Development Studies 32: 669–694.
Galasso, E., and M. Ravallion. 2004. Social protection in a crisis: Argentina’s Plan Jefes y Jefas. World Bank Economic Review 18: 367–399.
Galasso, E., and M. Ravallion. 2005. Decentralized targeting of an anti-poverty program. Journal of Public Economics 85: 705–727.
Gelbach, J., and L. Pritchett. 2000. Indicator targeting in a political economy: Leakier can be better. Journal of Policy Reform 4: 113–145.
Grosh, M. 1995. Toward quantifying the trade-off: Administrative costs and incidence in targeted programs in Latin America. In Public spending and the poor: Theory and evidence, ed. D. van de Walle and K. Nead. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hoff, K. 2001. Beyond Rosenstein-Rodan: The modern theory of coordination problems in development. In Proceedings of the annual world bank conference on development economics 2000. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Jalan, J., and M. Ravallion. 1998. Are there dynamic gains from a poor-area development program? Journal of Public Economics 67: 65–86.
Jalan, J., and M. Ravallion. 2002. Geographic poverty traps? A micro model of consumption growth in rural China? Journal of Applied Econometrics 17: 329–346.
Jalan, J., and M. Ravallion. 2003. Estimating the benefit incidence of an anti-poverty program by propensity-score matching. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 21: 19–30.
Lanjouw, P., and M. Ravallion. 1995. Poverty and household size. Economic Journal 105: 1415–1435.
Lipton, M., and M. Ravallion. 1995. Poverty and policy. In Handbook of development economics, vol. 3, ed. J. Behrman and T. Srinivasan. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Lokshin, M., and M. Ravallion. 2000. Welfare impacts of Russia’s 1998 financial crisis and the response of the public safety net. Economics of Transition 8: 269–295.
Mansuri, G., and V. Rao. 2004. Community-based and -driven development. World Bank Research Observer 19: 1–40.
Pritchett, L., S. Sumarto, and A. Suryahadi. 2003. Safety nets or safety ropes? Dynamic benefit incidence of two crisis programs in Indonesia. World Development 31: 1257–1277.
Ravallion, M. 1993. Poverty alleviation through regional targeting: A case study for Indonesia. In The economics of rural organization: Theory, practice and policy, ed. K. Hoff, A. Braverman, and J. Stiglitz. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ravallion, M. 2005a. Transfers and safety nets in poor countries: Revisiting the tradeoffs and policy options. In Understanding poverty, ed. A. Banerjee, R. Bénabou, and D. Mookerjee. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ravallion, M. 2005b. Evaluating anti-poverty programs. In Handbook of agricultural economics, vol. 4, ed. R. Evenson and T. Schultz. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Ravallion, M. 2005c. Who is protected? On the incidence of fiscal adjustment. In Macroeconomic policies and poverty reduction, ed. A. Mody and C. Pattillo. London: Routledge.
Ravallion, M., and G. Datt. 1995. Is targeting through a work requirement efficient? In Public spending and the poor: Theory and evidence, ed. D. van de Walle and K. Nead. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Ravallion, M., and Q. Wodon. 2000. Does child labor displace schooling? Evidence on behavioral responses to an enrolment subsidy. Economic Journal 110: C158–C176.
Ravallion, M., G. Datt, and S. Chaudhuri. 1993. Does Maharashtra’s employment guarantee scheme guarantee employment? Effects of the 1988 wage increase. EconomicDevelopment and Cultural Change 41: 251–275.
Ravallion, M., D. van de Walle, and M. Gautam. 1995. Testing a social safety net. Journal of Public Economics 57: 175–199.
Ravallion, M., E. Galasso, T. Lazo, and E. Philipp. 2005. Do workfare participants recover quickly from retrenchment? Journal of Human Resources 40: 208–230.
Sadoulet, E. and A. de Janvry. 2002. Alternative targeting and calibration schemes for educational grants programs: Lessons from PROGRESA. Mimeo. Berkeley: University of California.
Schultz, T. 2004. School subsidies for the poor: Evaluating the Mexican PROGRESA poverty program. Journal of Development Economics 74: 199–250.
Skoufias, E. 2005. PROGRESA and its impact on the welfare of rural households in Mexico. Research Report No. 139. Washington, DC: International Food Research Institute.
Spagnolo, G. 1999. Social relations and cooperation in organizations. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 38: 1–25.
Subbarao, K. 1997. Public works as an anti-poverty program: An overview of crosscountry experience. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79: 678–683.
van de Walle, D. 1998. Targeting revisited. World Bank Research Observer 13: 231–248.
van de Walle, D. 2004. Testing Vietnam’s public safety net. Journal of Comparative Economics 32: 661–679.
World Bank. 2001. World development report: Attacking poverty. New York: Oxford University Press.
World Bank. 2003. Land policies for growth and poverty reduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
World Bank. 2004. World development report: Delivering public services to the poor. New York: Oxford University Press.
World Bank. 2006. World development report: Equity and development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ravallion, M. (2018). Poverty Alleviation Programmes. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1996
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1996
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences