Assessing the Frontiers of Ultra-Poverty Reduction: Evidence from CFPR/TUP, an Innovative Program in Bangladesh

This paper uses household panel data to provide robust evidence on the effects of BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra-poor Program in Bangladesh. Our identification strategy exploits type-1 errors in assignment, comparing households correctly included with those incorrectly excluded, according to program criteria. Evidence from difference-in-difference matching and sensitivity analysis shows that participation had significant positive effects on income, food consumption and security, household durables, and livestock, but no robust impact on health, ownership of homestead land, housing quality and other productive assets. Using quantile difference-in-difference, we find that the income gains from program participation is smaller for the lowest two deciles.Ultra-poor, CFPR/TUP, BRAC, Bangladesh, Microfinance, Bangladesh, Assignment Error, Difference-in-Difference, Matching, Heteroskedasticity-Based Identification

Intergenerational mobility, middle sectors and entrepreneurship in Uruguay

Se estudia la relación entre el nivel educativo de los padres y el ingreso y la enseñanza de los niños en Uruguay entre 1982 y 2010. Esta relación es interpretada como una medida de la movilidad social intergeneracional, y la investigación reporta que ha decrecido a través del tiempo

Public procurement as a driver of innovation and entrepreneurship

El documento analiza la efectividad de la contratación pública (PP) para estimular el desarrollo y expansión de emprendimientos innovadores, centrándose en determinar si existe un efecto diferenciado para las empresas emergentes. Se analizan dos mecanismos a través de los cuales la contratación pública tiene un efecto positivo en las empresas: (i) haciendo posible alcanzar una escala suficiente para expandirse en el mercado doméstico o en el extranjero y, (ii) ii) complementando los programas de promoción de la innovación que operan como impulsores de la oferta innovadora de un país. Para el total de la muestra de las empresas analizadas, y el conjunto de las tres variables principales (crecimiento del empleo, crecimiento de las ventas y crecimiento de las exportaciones), no se encontró evidencia que indique que ser un proveedor del estado afecte el desarrollo y la expansión de las empresas. Sin embargo, se rechaza la hipótesis nula de que la contratación pública no tiene efecto en el crecimiento de las exportaciones / ratio de rotación de las empresas emergentes. De hecho, tanto en el caso de aquellos que no han realizado innovación como en el de los innovadores, ser un proveedor público está ligado a una mayor orientación al mercado exterior. También se rechaza la hipótesis nula de que no hay impacto en la interacción de las políticas de oferta y demanda. [basado en resumen de los autores

Intergenerational Mobility, Middle Sectors and Entrepreneurship in Uruguay

This paper estimates the relationship between parents educational attainment and income and children's schooling in Uruguay between 1982 and 2010. This relationship is interpreted as a measure of intergenerational social mobility, and the paper reports evidence that it has decreased over time. The paper finds that the probability that the children of the more educated remain among the more educated has grown, with analogous results for the less educated. As a result, the improvements in education of the 1980s and 1990s were unevenly distributed, with a bias against the disadvantaged. The paper also finds that while entrepreneurship status and belonging to the middle class matter in terms of social mobility as measured by compulsory education, i.e., primary school and the first three years of secondary school, they do not have a notable effect on noncompulsory education, i.e., the last three years of secondary school and higher.

Multidimensional targeting and evaluation : a general framework with an application to a poverty program in Bangladesh

Many poverty, safety net, training, and other social programs utilize multiple screening criteria to determine eligibility. We apply recent advances in multidimensional measurement analysis to develop a straightforward method for summarizing changes in groups of eligibility (screening) indicators, which have appropriate properties. We show how this impact can differ across participants with differing numbers of initial deprivations. We also examine impacts on other specially designed multidimensional poverty measures (and their components) that address key participant deficits. We apply our methods to a BRAC ultra-poverty program in Bangladesh, and find that our measures of multidimensional poverty have fallen significantly for participants. This improvement is most associated with better food security and with acquisition of basic assets (though this does not mean that the cause of poverty reduction was program activities focused directly on these deficits). In general, we find that the BRAC program had a greater impact on reducing multidimensional poverty for those with a larger initial number of deprivations. We also showed how evaluation evidence can be used to help improve the selection of eligibility characteristics of potential participants.</p

Multidimensional targeting and evaluation:: a general framework with an application to a poverty program in Bangladesh

Many poverty, safety net, training, and other social programs utilize multiple screening criteria to determine eligibility. We apply recent advances in multidimensional measurement analysis to develop a straightforward method for summarizing changes in groups of eligibility (screening) indicators, which have appropriate properties. We show how this impact can differ across participants with differing numbers of initial deprivations. We also examine impacts on other specially designed multidimensional poverty measures (and their components) that address key participant deficits. We apply our methods to a BRAC ultra-poverty program in Bangladesh, and find that our measures of multidimensional poverty have fallen significantly for participants. This improvement is most associated with better food security and with acquisition of basic assets (though this does not mean that the cause of poverty reduction was program activities focused directly on these deficits). In general, we find that the BRAC program had a greater impact on reducing multidimensional poverty for those with a larger initial number of deprivations. We also showed how evaluation evidence can be used to help improve the selection of eligibility characteristics of potential participants.</p