Featuring
Stephen Smith
Professor of Economics and International Affairs, George Washington University
Visiting Fellow, Global Economy and Development, The Brookings Institution
With Discussant
Luis Felipe Lopez Calva
Lead Economist, Latin America & Caribbean Region, World Bank
Join CGD for a MADS with Stephen Smith where he will present a new paper on targeting the ultra-poor, and the link between individual characteristics and program impacts. Smith and his co-authors explore the effects of selection criteria on the characteristics of beneficiaries and the distribution of impacts across beneficiaries. To conduct this analysis, Smith introduces a 'counterfactual targeting' approach to simulate the way beneficiary characteristics and program impacts vary across different targeting criteria. He then applies these methods to assess the impact of BRAC's Targeting the Ultra-poor Program (TUP) in Bangladesh.
*The Massachusetts Ave. Development Seminar (MADS) is a ten year-old research seminar series that brings some of the worlds leading development scholars to discuss their new research and ideas. The presentations meet an academic standard of quality and are at times technical, but retain a focus on a mixed audience of researchers and policymakers.
