Identification for Development: The Biometrics Revolution

Gelb, Alan; Clark, Julia

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2226594

Cited by 126 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…2 The potential for such payment systems to improve the performance of public welfare programs (and also provide financial inclusion for the poor) has generated enormous interest around the world, with a recent survey documenting the existence of 230 programs in over 80 countries that are deploying biometric identification and payment systems (Gelb and Clark, 2013). This enthusiasm is exemplified by India's ambitious Aadhaar initiative to provide biometric-linked unique IDs (UIDs) to nearly a billion residents, and then transition social program payments to Direct Benefit Transfers via UID-linked bank accounts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India

Muralidharan¹,

Niehaus²,

Sukhtankar³

2016

American Economic Review

327

184

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Anti-poverty programs in developing countries are often difficult to implement; in particular, many governments lack the capacity to deliver payments securely to targeted beneficiaries. We evaluate the impact of biometrically-authenticated payments infrastructure ("Smartcards") on beneficiaries of employment (NREGS) and pension (SSP) programs in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, using a large-scale experiment that randomized the rollout of Smartcards over 158 subdistricts and 19 million people. We find that, while far from perfectly implemented, the new system delivered a faster, more predictable, and less corrupt NREGS payments process without adversely affecting program access. For each of these outcomes, treatment group distributions first-order stochastically dominated those of the control group. The investment was cost-effective, as time savings to NREGS beneficiaries alone were equal to the cost of the intervention, and there was also a significant reduction in the "leakage" of funds between the government and beneficiaries. We also find evidence of improvements for pension beneficiaries, but these were typically not significant. Beneficiaries overwhelmingly preferred the new system for both NREGS and SSP programs. Overall, our results suggest that investing in secure payments infrastructure can significantly enhance "state capacity" to implement welfare programs in developing countries.JEL codes: D73, H53, O30, O31

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India

Muralidharan¹,

Niehaus²,

Sukhtankar³

2016

American Economic Review

327

184

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In many developing countries, this technology has given governments and citizens the means to authenticate official identity, strengthening civil registries and national ID card systems using various physical traits, including fingerprints, iris scans, vein patterns, and DNA. Gelb and Clark (2013) find projects to biometrically identify people-small and large, by governments and by nongovernment organizations-in more than 80 countries. Latin America leads the way in biometric-enabled national identity systems, but other regions are not far behind.…”

Section: Better Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excerpt: Digital Revolutions in Public Finance

2017

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Digitalization holds vast potential for fiscal policy. By transforming how we collect, process, and act on information, it can expand and reshape the way we operate within the frontiers of policymaking. Policymakers now have access to better information and better systems. Digitalization allows for greater storage and tracking of individual information through the maintenance of electronic records, linking of data registries across government using digital platforms, and enhanced capabilities to handle and analyze large data sets.Although some studies have focused on the impact of new technological digital advances on economic activity, there is little existing literature and guidance on the opportunities and challenges for fiscal policy. This book offers a useful perspective on how governments can leverage new technology to achieve better fiscal policy outcomes and chart such a path.This excerpt is taken from uncorrected page proofs. Please check quotations and attributions against the final published volume. Support for this book and the conference on which it is based was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Digital Revolutions in Public Finance Digital Revolutions in Public FinanceEditors Sanjeev Gupta, Michael Keen, Alpa Shah, and Geneviève Verdier Each country will need to chart its own path-either by taking incremental steps to digitalize or by leapfrogging to newer and more sophisticated policies and implementation methods. We must not underestimate the institutional challenges and capacity constraints along the way, and the design of new policies must be equitable and inclusive. There are also privacy and cybersecurity concerns and new avenues for fraud, which call for international cooperation and regulation as information increasingly travels across borders. Yet the potential benefits far outweigh the risks. We hope that this book will take us closer to that future. Together we can harness new technology to achieve better fiscal policy outcomes for all. Bas Jacobs is professor of economics and public finance since 2007 at the Erasmus School of Economics of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is a research fellow of the Tinbergen Institute and CESifo, academic partner of the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, and president of the Royal Netherlands Economics Association. His research crosses the borders of public finance, optimal taxation, macroeconomics, human capital theory, and labor economics. Professor Jacobs has written about optimal labor income taxation, optimal capital income taxation, inverse optimal taxation, human capital theory, optimal education policy, optimal taxation in labor markets with trade unions and minimum wages, the marginal cost of public funds, environmental and corrective taxation, wage inequality, fiscal policy, productivity growth, and technical change. . He has led technical assistance missions to over thirty countries on a wide range of issues in tax policy, and consulted for the World Bank, European Commission, and the privat...

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“…Similarly, biometric identification requires a new infrastructure and administrative system for handling the personal markers, but it is already quite widely used. The Center for Global Development in the United States speculates that around one billion citizens in the developing world have been biometrically enrolled for cash transfer programs, government payroll databases, or other uses (Gelb & Clark, 2013). Although biometric identification is prone to failure and can be expensive, it is quickly being adopted for its promise of fighting fraud in financial transactions.…”

Section: New Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%