Targeting the ultra poor in Bangladesh, household survey 2014

A household survey of a randomized control trial in rural Bangladesh conducted in 2014 which collected data on the long-run outcomes of the Targeting the Ultra Poor program conducted by the NGO BRAC. This survey is the 7 year follow-up. The research examines a new set of interventions, pioneered by the world's largest NGO BRAC in Bangladesh, which simultaneously tackle the capital and skills constraint in an attempt to encourage occupational change amongst the world's poorest women. We use randomised control trials of this type of program in Bangladesh to look at whether providing capital and skills can encourage basic entrepreneurship. The issue at hand is whether one can create successful female entrepreneurs - who acquire skills and make use of productive capital - out of poor women who started out with neither. Key to this question is whether asset and skill transfers can induce the poor to alter their occupational choices and permanently exit poverty, as opposed to simply enabling them to increase their consumption in the short term. These questions are highly salient as the world is littered with examples of anti-poverty programs, which despite their best intentions, fail to have any appreciable impact on their intended beneficiaries.

本数据集为2014年于孟加拉国农村开展的一项随机对照试验（randomized control trial）家庭调查，旨在收集非政府组织BRAC推行的“极端贫困靶向项目（Targeting the Ultra Poor program）”的长期成效数据，本次调查为该项目的7年追踪随访。本研究聚焦由全球规模最大的非政府组织BRAC在孟加拉国首创的一系列新型干预举措，这些举措同时针对资本与技能约束问题，以期推动全球最贫困女性群体实现职业转型。我们借助孟加拉国境内此类项目的随机对照试验数据，探究提供资本与技能能否助力女性开展基础创业活动。当前亟需解答的核心议题是，能否将原本既无技能也无生产资本的贫困女性，培育为掌握技能并有效运用生产性资本的成功女性创业者。该问题的关键在于，资产与技能转移能否促使贫困群体改变职业选择并永久脱离贫困，而非仅在短期内提升其消费水平。此类议题极具现实意义，因为全球范围内不乏各类反贫困项目——尽管初衷良好，却未能对目标受益群体产生任何显著实效。