A new GLO Discussion Paper tests the performance of cross-survey imputation methods to estimate poverty for a sample of refugees in Chad.

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GLO Discussion Paper No. 538, 2020

Estimating Poverty among Refugee Populations: A Cross-Survey Imputation Exercise for Chad – Download PDF
by Beltramo, Theresa & Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Sarr, Ibrahima & Verme, Paolo

GLO Fellows Hai-Anh Dang & Paolo Verme

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Author Abstract: Household consumption surveys do not typically cover refugee populations, and poverty estimates for refugees are rare. This paper tests the performance of cross-survey imputation methods to estimate poverty for a sample of refugees in Chad, by combining United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees survey and administrative data. The proposed method offers poverty estimates based on administrative data that fall within a 95 percent margin of poverty estimates based on survey consumption data. This result is robust to different poverty lines, sets of regressors, and modeling assumptions of the error term. The method outperforms common targeting methods, such as proxy means tests and the targeting method currently used by humanitarian organizations in Chad.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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