Who receives social pensions? Evidence from greying India

Whether social transfers should be targeted or universal is an unsolved debate influencing the implementation of social protection schemes in developing countries. While the limited availability of public resources encourages targeting, the difficulty to identify the poor promotes a universal allocation. To address this question, this study examines the targeting performance of India’s social pension scheme and the factors associated with access in 2004-05 and 2011-12, a time period of important reforms addressing social pension coverage and amount. The analysis shows that the reforms had limited success: The share of elderly poor not receiving social pensions decreased, but at the same time the share of elderly non-poor receiving social pensions slightly increased. Compared to a random allocation of social pensions , the benefits from targeting are very low despite of the implemented eligibility reforms. As intended by the reforms, holding a Below Poverty Line ration card has become the primary determinant of access to social pensions. However, this result holds also for non-poor individuals who exploit the unwarranted possession of a Below Poverty Line ration card to obtain social pension benefits. Even though the reforms were intended to make the beneficiary selection more transparent, the empirical results indicate that after the reforms individuals who have direct connections to local government officials are more likely to access social pension benefits

Targeting of social transfers: are India’s poor older people left behind?

Whether social transfers should be targeted or universal is an unsolved debate particularly relevant for the implementation of social protection schemes in developing countries. While the limited availability of public resources encourages targeting, the difficulty to identify the poor promotes a universal allocation of benefits. To address this question, this study examines the targeting performance of and access to a social welfare scheme for an increasingly vulnerable group – India’s poor older people. The results show that during a time period of social pension reforms, exclusion and inclusion errors were successfully reduced but the exclusion of poor older people continues to be extremely high. Comparing the existing targeting approach to a random allocation, I show that the benefits of targeting are limited. The reforms aimed at increasing the transparency of social pension allocation indeed made the Below Poverty Line ration card the most important determinant of access to social pensions for older people. However, this focus on the ration card promoted by the national government has its own weaknesses. Non-poor older people exploit the unwarranted possession of this ration card and results suggest that after the reforms individuals with direct connections to local government officials are more likely to access social pension benefits. The current targeting approach seems to be beneficial for well-connected older individuals while many poor older people typically lacking these connections lag behind

Which hospital workers do (not) want the jab? Behavioral correlates of COVID-19 vaccine willingness among employees of Swiss hospitals

In many countries, the current vaccination rates are stagnating, to the extent that vaccine hesitancy { the delay or refusal to take recommended vaccinations { forms a major obstacle to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. This tendency is particularly concerning when observed among healthcare workers who are opinion leaders on medical matters for their patients and peers. Our study surveys 965 employees of two large Swiss hospitals and profiles vaccine-hesitant hospital employees using not only socio-demographic characteristics, but also a comprehensive set of standard behavioral preference measures: (i) Big-5 personality traits, (ii) risk-, time- and social preferences, and (iii) perceived prevailing social norms. Using multinomial probit models and linear probability models, we find that vaccine-hesitant hospital employees are less patient and less likely to perceive vaccination as the prevailing social norm { in addition to replicating previously published socio-demographic results. Our findings are robust to a range of model specifications, as well as individual and situational covariates. Our study thus offers actionable policy implications for tailoring public-health communications to vaccine-hesitant hospital employees

Does transparency improve public program targeting? Evidence from India's old-age social pension reforms

Public program targeting is particularly challenging in developing countries. Transparency in eligibility rules for the implementation of social programs could be an effective measure to reduce mistargeting. While prior studies have examined the relevance of transparent delivery mechanisms, we focus on the transparency of eligibility criteria that can be reformed at relatively low cost. India’s social pension reforms in the late 2000s provide the opportunity to examine the effect of a change in these criteria. Using two rounds of the India Human Development Survey along with extensive administrative information, we test whether increasing the transparency of eligibility criteria reduces the mistargeting of social pensions. We thereby allow for an error band, and we carefully control for design effects due to a general increase in the number of pensions and eligible individuals. Our results confirm the relationship between transparency of eligibility criteria and targeting performance and are robust to different specifications of the transparency measure and the introduction of a tolerance band

Behavioral correlates of mask wearing among COVID-19 frontline workers

Human behavior can have effects on oneself and externalities on others. Mask wearing is such a behavior in the current pandemic. What motivates people to wear face masks in public when mask wearing is voluntary or not enforced? Which benefits should the policy makers rather emphasize in information campaigns|the reduced chances of getting the SARS-CoV-2 virus (benefits for oneself) or the reduced chances of transmitting the virus (benefits for others in the society)? In this paper, we link measured risk preferences and other-regarding preferences to mask wearing habits among 840 surveyed employees of two large Swiss hospitals. We find that the leading mask-wearing motivations change with age: While for older people, mask wearing habits are best explained by their self-regarding risk preferences, younger people are also motivated by other-regarding concerns. Our results are robust to different specifications including linear probability models, probit models and Lasso covariate selection models. Our findings thus allow drawing policy implications for effectively communicating public-health recommendations to frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Analisis Pengetahuan, Pemahaman Dan Bandwagon Effect Terhadap Minat Investasi Mahasiswa Pada Prodi Akuntansi Di Kota Batam

Minat investasi mengacu pada keinginan kuat seseorang untuk memahami segala sesuatu tentang investasi atau untuk mempelajari secara ekstensif di bidang ini sebelum melakukan investasi yang sebenarnya. Kini terjadi penghambatan dalam minat investasi pada mahasiswa di kota batam yang diasumsikan bahwa beberapa faktor yang mempengaruhinnya yaitu pengetahuan dalam berinvestasi, pemahaman investasi serta factor bandwagon effect dalam berinvestasi. Dalam penelitian ini menggunakan menggunakan data primer serta pembagian kuesioner untuk memperoleh data. Sampel dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 94 responden menggunakan google form dalam pembagian kuesioner. Penelitian ini menampilkan hasil yaitu pengetahuan investasi memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap minat mahasiswa berinvestasi, serta pemahaman investasi memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap minat mahasiswa berinvestasi, sementara bandwagon effect memiliki pengaruh negatif dan signifikan terhadap minat mahasiswa berinvestasi. Hasil secara simultan menunjukkan bahwa pengetahuan, pemahaman dan bandwagon effect secara bersamaan berpengaruh signifikan terhadap minat mahasiswa berinvestasi. Kata Kunci: Pengetahuan; Pemahaman; Bandwagon Effect; Minat Investas

The pursuit of simplicity: Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?

Governments in developing countries struggle to reach intended beneficiaries when targeting social transfers towards vulnerable populations. Rates of eligible individuals not receiving social transfers and ineligible individuals receiving them tend to be high, constraining the effectiveness of such anti-poverty programs. While interventions to incentivize or monitor local agents in charge of selecting beneficiaries are typically expensive, an important complementary and cost-effective approach could be to reform eligibility criteria to facilitate the selection of beneficiaries. Whether reforms should focus on reducing the number of rules, or selecting criteria which are easy to verify, or do both remains an unanswered question. We address this knowledge gap based on India’s social pension scheme for elderly poor. We find that making eligibility criteria easier to verify has the potential to achieve a substantial improvement in the targeting performance through a reduction in the exclusion error. Those who meet the relevant criteria have a much higher chance of actually becoming beneficiaries. Since eligibility criteria can be changed at low cost, this suggests a viable route for reform in many developing countries. However, a major caveat remains that criteria must sufficiently well reflect actual poverty if the more accurate selection of beneficiaries according to formal criteria shall also translate into actual poverty reduction

The pursuit of simplicity : Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?

Governments in developing countries struggle to reach intended beneficiaries when targeting social transfers towards vulnerable populations. Rates of eligible individuals not receiving social transfers and ineligible individuals receiving them tend to be high, constraining the effectiveness of such anti-poverty programs. While interventions to incentivize or monitor local agents in charge of selecting beneficiaries are typically expensive, an important complementary and cost-effective approach could be to reform eligibility criteria to facilitate the selection of beneficiaries. Whether reforms should focus on reducing the number of rules, or selecting criteria which are easy to verify, or do both remains an unanswered question. We address this knowledge gap based on India’s social pension scheme for elderly poor. We find that making eligibility criteria easier to verify has the potential to achieve a substantial improvement in the targeting performance through a reduction in the exclusion error. Those who meet the relevant criteria have a much higher chance of actually becoming beneficiaries. Since eligibility criteria can be changed at low cost, this suggests a viable route for reform in many developing countries. However, a major caveat remains that criteria must sufficiently well reflect actual poverty if the more accurate selection of beneficiaries according to formal criteria shall also translate into actual poverty reduction.publishe

Do more transparent eligibility rules improve public program targeting? : Evidence from India’s old-age social pension reform

Public program targeting is particularly challenging in developing countries. Transparency in eligibility rules for the implementation of social programs could be an effective measure to reduce mistargeting. While prior studies have examined the relevance of transparent delivery mechanisms, we focus on the clarity and verifiability of eligibility criteria. India's social pension reforms in the late 2000s provide the opportunity to examine the effect of a change in these criteria within and across states. Using two rounds of the India Human Development Survey along with extensive administrative information collected for the different states, we test whether increasing the transparency of eligibility criteria reduces the mistargeting of social pensions. We thereby allow for a tolerance band, and account for changes in social pension coverage. Our results confirm the expected relationship between the transparency of eligibility criteria and targeting performance and are robust to different specifications of the transparency measure and various robustness checks. Since eligibility criteria can be changed at low cost, this suggests a viable route for reform in many developing countries.publishe