2005/12/28 by Paul Henman · 1 voice
Engineering · Mathematics · Social Sciences · #Advanced Causal Inference Techniques #ICT Impact and Policies #Income, Poverty, and Inequality
paper · doi:10.1300/j399v02n01_05
openalex publication_date 2005/12/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Networked information and communication technologies are rapidly advancing the capacities of governments to target and separately manage specific sub-populations, groups and individuals. Targeting uses data profiling to calculate the differential probabilities of outcomes associated with various personal characteristics. This knowledge is used to classify and sort people for differentiated levels of treatment. Targeting is often used to efficiently and effectively target government resources to the most disadvantaged. Although having many benefits, targeting raises several policy and ethical issues. This paper discusses these issues and the policy responses governments may take to maximise the benefits of targeting while ameliorating the negative aspects.