The Economics of Regional Poverty-Environment Programs: An Application for Lao People's Democratic Republic

Program administrators are often faced with the difficult problem of allocating scarce resources among regions in a country when interventions are aimed at addressing multiple objectives. One main concern is the tradeoff between poverty reduction and improvement of environmental quality. To provide a framework for analysis, the authors develop a model of optimal budget allocation that allows for variations in three factors: administrators' valuation of objectives; their willingness to accept tradeoffs among objectives and regional allotments; and regional administrative costs. The results from an application of this model using information for Lao People's Democratic Republic show that simple poverty indicators alone do not provide consistent guidelines for policy. However, when different poverty indicators are embedded in an optimizing model that incorporates preferences and costs, the resulting provincial allocations are very similar. This suggests that adoption of a formal analytical approach to resource allocation can help promote the harmonization of regional policy guidelines.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Buys, Piet, Chomitz, Kenneth, Dasgupta, Susmita, Deichmann, Uwe, Larsen, Bjorn, Meisner, Craig, Nygard, Jostein, Pandey, Kiran, Pinnoi, Nat, Wheeler, David R.
Format: Policy Research Working Paper biblioteca
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, D.C. 2004-04
Subjects:AIR POLLUTION, ASSET INDICATORS, AVERAGE POVERTY, BUDGET ALLOCATIONS, BUDGETARY ALLOCATIONS, CASE STUDIES, COST FUNCTIONS, COUNTRY CONDITIONS, DEFORESTATION, DIMINISHING RETURNS, ECONOMICS, ELASTICITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM, ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES, EXPENDITURES, FISHERIES, GDP, GEOGRAPHIC TARGETING, INCOME, INCOME HOUSEHOLDS, INDIVIDUAL POVERTY, LOCAL CONDITIONS, MACRO POLICY, NATIONAL LEVEL, NATIONAL LEVELS, NATIONAL POVERTY, POLICY RESEARCH, POLITICAL ECONOMY, POLLUTION, POOR, POOR HOUSEHOLDS, POOR PEOPLE, POOR PERSON, POOR PERSONS, POVERTY ERADICATION, POVERTY GAP, POVERTY INCIDENCE, POVERTY INDICATORS, POVERTY LINE, POVERTY REDUCTION, POVERTY SEVERITY, PROGRAMS, QUALITY OF SERVICES, REGIONAL POVERTY, RELATIVE POVERTY, RESOURCE ALLOCATION, RESOURCE CONSERVATION, RURAL AREAS, RURAL POPULATION, SCALE ECONOMIES, SERVICE DELIVERY, SOIL DEGRADATION, SUBSTITUTION ELASTICITIES, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, TRADEOFFS, WELFARE FUNCTION, WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT POVERTY MITIGATION, ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGETS, ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS, ALLOTMENTS, PROVINCIAL FINANCES,
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/04/3540673/economics-regional-poverty-environment-programs-application-lao-peoples-democratic-republic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14751
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