Cardenalización del índice de marginación: una metodología para evaluar la eficiencia del gasto ejercido en el Ramo 33

the deprivation index developed by the national population council is an ordinal measure indicating the degree of exclusion from the enjoyment of economic development experienced by regions (states, municipalities and towns). this indicator is widely used, among other things, to target programs to combat poverty. however, due to the methodology used in its construction, the index can not be used to evaluate the effectiveness of some government programs aimed at reducing the social gap. in this paper a methodology for the "cardenalización" of the index is proposed. it transforms the original index into a cardinal measure in such a way that it can be employed to quantify the improvements and setbacks in the level of welfare of different areas of the country. additionally, the technique is applied to evaluate the effects of ramo 33 transfers in changes of marginalization at the state level.