The geography of poverty in the Palestinian territories

Abstract EN

In this paper we construct a detailed poverty map of the West Bank and Gaza by estimating the incidence of poverty in 132 distinct localities.

We derive the estimates by combining econometric analysis of the Palestinian Households Survey with information contained in the Palestinian Census from 1997.

Our results suggest that the incidence of poverty differs greatly across localities.

This indicates that it may be efficient to base targeting of the poor on the geography of poverty in the West Bank and Gaza.

We show that geographic targeting compares favorably, in terms of low leakage rates, to targeting mechanisms based on observable characteristics of potential beneficiaries.

We also illustrate that targeting efficiency may be further improved by combing the two types of targeting mechanisms.