Assessing the Frontiers of Ultrapoverty Reduction: Evidence from Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra-poor, an Innovative Program in Bangladesh

摘要

Using a two-period household-level panel data set, this article provides robust evidence on the effects of BRAC's Targeting Ultra-poor Program (TUP phase 1) on a set of important household outcomes for the ultrapoor. We use a battery of recent econometric approaches and alternative treatment-comparison groups to identify and estimate the effects of TUP program participation. In addition to BRAC's own treatment-comparison groups, we use the type 1 errors in assignment (mistargeting) in BRAC's screening to create an alternative treatment-comparison pair. This allows us to identify a treatment group composed of the poorest of the poor (i.e., ultrapoor) among the sample households and also an appropriate comparison group for this treatment group.