The Impact of Indian Job Guarantee Scheme on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Azam, Mehtabul

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1941959

Cited by 108 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…If families are forward looking, they could reduce their schooling investment to adjust to the new, lower returns, which could explain our findings (Oster and Steinberg, 2013;Jensen, 2012). The increase in the agricultural wages due to NREGS is about 5 percent (Imbert and Papp, 2015;Berg et al, 2012;Azam, 2012). Returns to schooling in the developing world are estimated at 7-14% per year (Duflo, 2001;Card, 1999).…”

mentioning

confidence: 84%

“…The state governments bear the remaining 25 percent. In addition, state governments bear the cost of unemployment allowance payable when the state government cannot provide wage employment on time (Azam, 2012;Ministry of Rural Development, 2008). program became available in the remaining 270 districts.…”

Section: Background On Nregsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Labor Demand From previous work, we know that NREGS caused an increase in labor demand and wages in the districts in which it was operational (Imbert and Papp, 2015;Zimmerman, 2014;Azam, 2012). Though work on NREGS projects was legally limited to those over the age of 18, this could have caused an increase in labor demand for adolescents in a few ways.…”

Section: Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ravallion (1987) and Basu et al (2009) show that government hiring may crowd out private sector work and lead to a rise in equilibrium private sector wages. Recently various papers have shown that there has been an increase in rural wages in India due to workfare (Imbert and Papp, 2015;Berg et al, 2012;Azam, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India

Shah

Steinberg

2015

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I EIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We examine the effect of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), one of the largest workfare programs in the world, on human capital investment. Since NREGS increases labor demand, it could increase the opportunity cost of schooling, lowering human capital investment even as incomes increase. We exploit the staged rollout of the program across districts for causal identification. Using a household survey of test scores and schooling outcomes for approximately 2.5 million rural children in India, we show that each year of exposure to NREGS decreases school enrollment by 2 percentage points and math scores by 2% of a standard deviation amongst children aged 13-16. In addition, while the impacts of NREGS on human capital are similar for boys and girls, adolescent boys are primarily substituting into market work when they leave school while adolescent girls are substituting into unpaid domestic work. We find mixed results for younger children. We conclude that anti-poverty programs which raise wages could have the unintended effect of lowering human capital investment.JEL Classification: O12, I2, I38, J1

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confidence: 84%

Section: Background On Nregsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India

Shah

Steinberg

2015

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“…Phase-in of NREG began at around the mid-point of our 2004-2011 window. Analyses of NSS data preceding the 68 th round provide mixed evidence as to the rural wage impacts of NREG expansion (see Azam, 2012;Zimmerman, 2013;Imbert and Papp, 2015). However, NSS68, for the first time, provides individual level data on NREG registration (job-card holding) and take-up (i.e., NREG employment in the last 12 months).…”

Section: A Within Rural Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Wage Structure in India in the Post-Reform Era: 1993–2011

Jacoby¹,

Dasgupta²

2015

Policy Research Working Papers

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This paper documents the changing structure of wages in India over the post-reform era, the roughly two-decade period since 1993. To investigate the factors underlying these changes, a supply-demand framework is applied at the level of the Indian state. While real wages have risen across India over the past two decades, the increase has been greater in rural areas and, especially, for unskilled workers. The analysis finds that, in rural areas, the changing wage structure has been driven largely by relative supply factors, such as increased overall education levels and falling female labor force participation. Relative wage changes between rural and urban areas have been driven largely by shifts in employment, notably into unskilled-intensive sectors like construction.

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Reimagining Safety Net Programs

Pingali

Aiyar

Abraham

et al. 2019

Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India

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Existing safety net programs in India provide income and nutritional assistance during different stages of an individual’s life. Critics have pointed out to inefficiencies in the design and delivery mechanisms which reduce the effectiveness of these programs in benefiting the targeted population. In this chapter, we argue that safety nets should account for the changing economic structure, demographic transitions and shifting livelihood patterns. As India urbanizes, focusing on urban poor, diversifying away from staple grain-focused policy is essential. Use of tools such as ICTs to curb corruption and leakages from the safety nets is essential. Finally, we highlight the complementary role of essential public goods provision together with the expansion of safety nets for reducing vulnerability and structural poverty.

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The Impact of Indian Job Guarantee Scheme on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Cited by 108 publications

References 27 publications

Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India

Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India

Changing Wage Structure in India in the Post-Reform Era: 1993–2011

Reimagining Safety Net Programs

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