Are There Lasting Impacts of Aid to Poor Areas? Evidence from Rural China

Mu, Ren; Chen, Shaohua; Ravallion, Martin

Are There Lasting Impacts of Aid to Poor Areas? Evidence from Rural China

2008

Mu, Ren | Chen, Shaohua | Ravallion, Martin

The paper revisits the site of a large, World Bank-financed, rural development program in China 10 years after it began and four years after disbursements ended. The program emphasized community participation in multi-sectoral interventions (including farming, animal husbandry, infrastructure and social services). Data were collected on 2,000 households in project and nonproject areas, spanning 10 years. A double-difference estimator of the program's impact (on top of pre-existing governmental programs) reveals sizeable short-term income gains that were mostly saved. Only modest gains to mean consumption emerged in the longer term-in rough accord with the gain to permanent income. Certain types of households gained more than others. The educated poor were under-covered by the community-based selection process-greatly reducing overall impact. The main results are robust to corrections for various sources of selection bias, including village targeting and interference due to spillover effects generated by the response of local governments to the external aid.

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AGROVOC Keywords

accounting agricultural development agricultural productivity arbitrage assets bank loans cash transfers cd commodities community participation debt development economics development projects drinking water econometrics economic development economic growth extreme poverty farm enterprises farm income farmers gender growth rate health insurance household income household surveys households income insurance interest rates irrigation liquidity migrant workers poverty reduction private investment production costs production functions public goods questionnaires remittances repayment rural development savings social services targeting teacher training urban areas village

Bibliographic information

Publisher

World Bank, Washington, DC

Other Subjects

Poverty line; Income inequality; Intervention; Family member; Selection bias; Implementation completion report; Low-income; Form of saving; Poverty impact; Constraints on access; Infrastructure investments; Poverty lines; Credit constraints; Low-income group; Labor mobility; Treatment effects; Day-care; Remote villages; Poor areas; Permanent income hypothesis; Poor countries; Savings rate; Enrolment rates; Economic theory; Cash expenditure; Household saving; Rate of interest; Production inputs; Sources of finance; Participatory processes; Access to credit; Counterfactual; Credit market; Calculations; Farm employment; Farm productivity; Ethnic minorities; Biases; Economic research; Impact evaluation; Income poverty; Rate of return; Poor; Aid effectiveness; Wage; Credit market failures; Loan activity; Purchasing power; Capital-market; Market failures; Relevant population; Icr; Poverty rate; Total cost; Types of loans; Loan amounts; Wage income; Rural roads; Evaluation methods; Sale; Household size; Rural; Availability of credit; Land quality; Contribution; Rural household; Poverty incidence; Income impacts; Wealth; Marginal products; Low income; Poverty impacts; Annual returns; Annual income; Training program; Capital stocks; Rural economy; Income gains; Regional poverty; Development assistance; Income levels; Permanent income; Endowments; Education level; Poverty poverty; Household participation; Purchasing power parity; Job training; Programs; Tuition; Accurate estimates; Food staples; Precautionary saving; Poverty index; Inequalities; Access to services; Anti-poverty; Incomes; Productive assets; Anti-poverty policies; Capital markets; Political economy; Marginal product; Matching methods; Poverty reduction project; Repayments; Impact on poverty; Rates of interest; Probability; Infrastructure projects; Rural living standards; Village characteristics; Expenditures; Loan repayments; Interest payments; Household survey; Poverty measures; Public spending; Total revenue; Public economics; Technical assistance; Lack of capital; Poverty rates; Poverty policies; Enrollment; Community groups; Interest rate; Repayment rates; Family members; Future income; Poverty monitoring; Contingencies; Sources of credit; Precautionary savings; Loan repayment; Inequality; Comparative economics; Elementary school; Household head; Loan; Beneficiary; Form of credit; Poor infrastructure; Agricultural development bank; Income group; Outcome indicators; Reflexive comparisons

Language

English

Format

application/pdf, text/plain

License

CC BY 3.0 IGO, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/, World Bank

In AGRIS since: 2024-10-18

Modification date: 2025-04-17

Format: Dublin Core

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