Targeting with machine learning: An application to a tax rebate program in Italy

This paper shows how machine learning (ML) methods can be used to improve the effectiveness of public schemes and inform policy decisions. Focusing on a massive tax rebate scheme introduced in Italy in 2014, it shows that the effectiveness of the program would have significantly increased if the beneficiaries had been selected according to a transparent and easily interpretable ML algorithm. Then, some issues in estimating and using ML for the actual implementation of public policies, such as transparency and accountability, are critically discussed.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

• Publication date

  2018-12-01

• Fields of study

  Computer Science, Economics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/J.JEBO.2018.09.010
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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