Does Ignoring Heterogeneity in Impacts Distort Project Appraisals? An Experiment for Irrigation in Vietnam
Could the simplifying assumptions made
in project appraisal be so far from the truth that the
expected benefits of public investments are not realized?
Using data for Vietnam, commonly used estimates of the
benefits from irrigation investments based on means are
compared with impacts assessed through an econometric
modeling of marginal returns that allows for household and
area heterogeneity using integrated household-level survey
data. The simpler method performs well in estimating average
benefits nationally but can be misleading for some regions,
and, by ignoring heterogeneity, it overestimates gains to
the poor and underestimates gains to the rich. At moderate
to high cost levels, ignoring heterogeneity in impacts
results in enough mistakes to eliminate the net benefits
from public investment. When irrigating as little as 3
percent of Vietnam's non-irrigated land, the savings
from the more data-intensive method are sufficient to cover
the full cost of the extra data required, ignoring other
benefits from that data.
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Bibliographic Details
| Main Authors: |
Van de Walle, Dominique,
Gunewardena, Dileni |
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| Format: | Journal Article
biblioteca
|
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| Language: | English
en_US |
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| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2001-01
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| Subjects: | ACCESS TO IRRIGATION,
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY,
AGRICULTURAL POLICY,
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION,
AGRICULTURE,
ARABLE LAND,
BENCHMARK,
CATCHMENT AREA,
COMMUNES,
CONSUMER GOODS,
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX,
COST OF LIVING,
CROP INCOME,
CROP PRODUCTION,
CROPLAND,
CROPPING PATTERNS,
DELTA REGION,
DESCRIPTION,
DEVELOPMENT BANKS,
DISTRIBUTION OF ACCESS,
DISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS,
DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME,
DISTRIBUTION OF LAND,
DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS,
DISTRICTS,
ECONOMETRIC MODELING,
ECONOMIC COOPERATION,
EQUALITY,
EXPANSION OF IRRIGATION,
FARM HOUSEHOLDS,
FARM INCOME,
FARM OUTPUT,
FARM SIZE,
FARMER,
FARMERS,
FEMALE,
FOOD CROPS,
FOOD POLICY,
GENDER,
HOUSEHOLD DEMOGRAPHICS,
HOUSEHOLD HEAD,
HOUSEHOLD SIZE,
HOUSING,
HUMAN CAPITAL,
INCOME SHARES,
INCREASING RETURNS,
IRRIGATED LAND,
IRRIGATING,
IRRIGATION,
IRRIGATION EXPANSION,
IRRIGATION INFRASTRUCTURE,
IRRIGATION INVESTMENT,
IRRIGATION INVESTMENTS,
IRRIGATION NETWORKS,
IRRIGATION PROJECTS,
LABOR MARKET,
LABOR MARKETS,
LAND ASSETS,
LAND HOLDINGS,
LAND QUALITY,
LAND REFORM,
LAND TENURE,
LANDHOLDINGS,
LIVING STANDARDS, |
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/01/17736783/ignoring-heterogeneity-impacts-distort-project-appraisals-experiment-irrigation-vietnam
https://hdl.handle.net/10986/17219
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