Publication:
The Distributional Consequences of Group Procurement: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of a Food Security Program in Rural India

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2015-07-01
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2015-07-01
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Public transfer programs that allow beneficiaries to choose the transferred good may be more efficient, but the poorest beneficiaries may not participate if the good chosen is too costly. A model shows that program targeting and consumption impacts are tied to selected quality of the provided good. Evidence from a randomized trial in rural India in which groups of beneficiaries choose the variety of rice to be offered as a subsidized loan confirms that choosing lower cost goods self-targets the program towards the poorest beneficiaries. Consumption impacts are biggest for wealthiest households and may be negative for moderately poor households.
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Christian, Paul. 2015. The Distributional Consequences of Group Procurement: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of a Food Security Program in Rural India. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24785 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
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