The Value of Intrahousehold Survey Data for Age-Based Nutritional Targeting

The first objective of this paper is to develop a framework for the analysis of "upper-limit indicator targeting". This is a special case of indicator targeting problems, where an upper cut off value of an indicator variable such as age is used to determine eligibility for receiving transfers. The theory is applied to age-based targeting of nutritional interventions, using individual level, intra-household survey data from the Philippines. The second objective of the paper is to provide a quantitative assessment of the value of such intra-household data in targeting -- we find that without such data the costs of mistargeting, by calculating the wrong upper age cut off, can be considerable. The third objective of the paper is to provide a quantitative assessment of the costs of assuming no leakage of nutritional supplements through intra-household reallocation, when such leakage does indeed take place. Surprisingly, we find that the targeting costs of this wrong assumption are minimal.