Assessing the Social Welfare Effects of Government Transfer Programs: Some International Comparisons

Nanak Kakwani, Xiaobing Wang, Jing Xu, Ximing Yue

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper offers a new way of assessing government transfer programs using a social welfare function framework. It demonstrates how one can use social welfare functions to measure such programs' efficiency without requiring the specification of a poverty line or particular poverty measures. The paper introduces three alternative principles of targeting, which provide a basis for measuring program efficiency. By applying the methodology developed in this paper, we compare the targeting efficiencies of 44 countries, which include both middle and high-income countries.
Original languageEnglish
JournalReview of Income and Wealth
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Feb 2021

Keywords

  • Policy Evaluation; Government Transfer; Social Welfare; Social Rate of Return; International Comparison

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