What Do Policies Value?
When a policy prioritizes one person over another, is it because they benefit more, or because they are preferred? This paper develops a method to uncover the values consistent with observed allocation decisions. We estimate how much each person benefits from an intervention, and then reconcile the...
| Publicado en: | Review of Economic Studies Vol. 93; no. 4; pp. 2424 - 2451 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Jul2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195161456&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195161456 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00346527 REM jtl: Review of Economic Studies issn: 00346527 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 93 iid: 4 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 195161456 10.1093/restud/rdaf089 ppf: 2424 ppct: 27 formats: tig: atl: What Do Policies Value? aug: au: Björkegren, Daniel Blumenstock, Joshua E Knight, Samsun affil: Columbia University, USA U.C. Berkeley, USA University of Toronto, Canada su: Mexico Resource allocation Policy analysis Treatment effect heterogeneity Poverty reduction Conditional cash transfer programs sug: subj: Resource allocation Policy analysis Mexico Treatment effect heterogeneity Poverty reduction Conditional cash transfer programs keyword: copyrightHolder:Review of Economic Studies Ltd copyrightYear:2026 Heterogeneous treatment effects inLanguage:en publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaf089 Targeting Welfare copyrightHolder:Review of Economic Studies Ltd copyrightYear:2026 Heterogeneous treatment effects inLanguage:en publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaf089 Targeting Welfare ab: When a policy prioritizes one person over another, is it because they benefit more, or because they are preferred? This paper develops a method to uncover the values consistent with observed allocation decisions. We estimate how much each person benefits from an intervention, and then reconcile the allocation with (i) the welfare weights assigned to different people; (ii) heterogeneous treatment effects of the intervention; and (iii) weights on different outcomes. We demonstrate this approach by analyzing Mexico's PROGRESA anti-poverty programme. The analysis reveals that while the programme prioritized certain subgroups—such as indigenous households—the fact that those groups benefited more implies that the programme did not actually assign them a higher welfare weight. We also find evidence that the policy valued outcomes differently from households. The PROGRESA case illustrates how the method makes it possible to audit existing policies, and to design future policies that better align with values. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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