Person:
Özler, Berk
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Poverty and inequality,
Social Protection,
Gender,
Maternal and Child Health
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Development Research Group
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
August 22, 2023
Biography
Berk Özler is a lead economist in the Development Research Group, Poverty Cluster. He received his B.Sc. in Mathematics from Bosphorous University in 1991, and his Ph.D in Economics from Cornell University in 2001. After working on poverty and inequality measurement, poverty mapping, and the 2006 World Development Report on Equity and Development earlier, he decided to combine his interests in cash transfer programs and HIV risks facing young women in Africa by designing a field experiment in Malawi. He has since been involved in a number of cluster-randomized field experiments. He is a co-founder of and a regular contributor to the Development Impact blog.
Publication Search Results
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Publication
Asset Transfers and Anti-Poverty Programs: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-12)This paper uses a set of randomized experiments to examine the impact of a group business development program implemented by the Tanzanian government, along with a set of complementary training and cash transfer interventions targeted to vulnerable households in rural areas. In contrast with much of the recent literature, the analysis finds little effect of the business development program. While most enterprises remain operative three years after formation, even the highest estimates of effective wage rates suggest returns roughly equivalent to the opportunity cost of time for these households. Trainings on business skills and group transparency did not improve outcomes, although they appear to have exerted a redistributive effect from group elites to rank and file members. Unconditional and unanticipated lump sum cash transfers to randomly selected members of these groups induce all members to invest more in the enterprise, with seemingly little to no return on these marginal investments. The results emphasize the importance of profitability as the key motivation for asset transfer–based social protection programs.