Supporting Communities in Transition
研究了亚美尼亚社会投资基金在转型期通过社区主导项目改善学校和水系统等基础设施，发现其惠及贫困家庭，教育项目增加了教育支出，饮用水项目改善了用水和健康。
The Armenian Social Investment Fund supports communities' efforts to improve local infrastructure during Armenia's economic transition away from central planning, financing community-designed and -implemented projects to rehabilitate primary schools, water systems, and other infrastructure. This article considers the targeting, household impact, and community effects of the social fund's activities. It relies on a nationally representative household survey, oversampled in areas where the social fund was active. Using propensity and pipeline matching techniques to control for community self-selection into the social fund, it evaluates the household effects of rehabilitating schools and water systems. The results show that the social fund reached poor households, particularly in rural areas. Education projects increased households' spending on education significantly and had mild effects on school attendance. Potable water projects increased household access to water and had mild positive effects on health....