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A Simple Poverty Scorecard for the Philippines

A Simple Poverty Scorecard for the Philippines

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8. Estimates of changes in group poverty rates over timeThe change in a group’s poverty rate between two points in time is estimated as<strong>the</strong> change in <strong>the</strong> average poverty likelihood of <strong>the</strong> households in <strong>the</strong> group.8.1 Warning: Change is not impactScoring can estimate change. Of course, change could be <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> better or <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong>worse, and scoring does not indicate what caused change. This point is often <strong>for</strong>gottenor confused, so it bears repeating: poverty scoring simply estimates change, and it doesnot, in and of itself, indicate <strong>the</strong> reason <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> change. In particular, estimating <strong>the</strong>impact of program participation requires knowing what would have happened toparticipants if <strong>the</strong>y had not been participants (Moffitt, 1991). Knowing this requiresei<strong>the</strong>r strong assumptions or a control group that resembles participants in all waysexcept participation. To belabor <strong>the</strong> point, poverty scoring can help estimate programimpact only if <strong>the</strong>re is some way to know what would have happened in <strong>the</strong> absence of<strong>the</strong> program. And that in<strong>for</strong>mation must come from somewhere beyond poverty scoring.Even measuring simple change usually requires assuming that <strong>the</strong> population isconstant over time and that program drop-outs do not differ from non-drop-outs.8.2 Calculating estimated changes in poverty rates over timeConsider <strong>the</strong> illustration begun in <strong>the</strong> previous section. On Jan. 1, 2009, aprogram samples three households who score 20, 30, and 40 and so have poverty34

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