Option Values, Switches, and Wages: An Analysis of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India
Abstract
Consistent with real option theory, the authors argue that the value of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in rural India and its impact on workers' behavior does not depend so much on its income supplementation as on enlargement of opportunities in the uncertain local labor market. The choice between the EGS and other activities is modeled in a dynamic optimization framework, taking into account a fixed wage rate and certainty of employment under the EGS and a stochastic wage rate under other activities. Specifically, volatility of wages in the rural labor markets has important implications for switches into the EGS and for concomitant welfare effects. Under such conditions, the higher the EGS wage, the greater is its attractiveness to relatively skilled and affluent workers, and for those already in it to continue. These and related predictions of the model are validated by panel data estimation. Copyright © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Wiley Blackwell in its journal Review of Development Economics.
Volume (Year): 13 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (05)
Pages: 248-263
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:13:y:2009:i:2:p:248-263
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669
Order Information:
Web: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=1363-6669
For corrections or technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or (Christopher F. Baum).
Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Katsushi Imai & Pasquale Scandizzo & Raghav Gaiha, 2003. "Option Values, Switches and Wages - An Analysis of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," Economics Series Working Papers 164, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
- Scandizzo Pasquale & Gaiha Raghav & Imai Katsushi, 2003. "Option Values, Switches And Wages - An Analysis Of The Employmentguarantee Scheme In India," Departmental Working Papers 189, Tor Vergata University, CEIS.
- Katsushi Imai & Pasquale Scandizzo & Raghav Gaiha, 2004. "Option Values, Switches And Wages - An Analysis Of The Employment Guarantee Scheme In India," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2004 133, Royal Economic Society.
- D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
- D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
- H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
- I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty
- J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Besley, T. & Coate, S., 1989.
"Workfare Vs. Welfare: Incentive Arguments For Work Requirements In Poverty Alleviation Programs,"
The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS)
314, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
- Besley, T. & Coate, S., 1991. "Workfare vs. Welfare: Incentive Arguments For Work Requirements In Poverty Allevation Programs," Papers 73, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - John M. Olin Program.
- Besley, T., 1988. "Workfare Vs. Welfare: Incentive Arguments For Work Requirements In Poverty Alleviation Programs," Papers 142, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
- T. N. Srinivasan, 1994. "Destitution: A Discourse," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1842-1855, December.
- Raghav Gaiha, 2000. "On the Targeting of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in the Indian State of Maharashtra," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 203-219, October.
- Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1992. "Workfare versus Welfare Incentive Arguments for Work Requirements in Poverty-Alleviation Programs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 249-61, March.
- Subramanian, Shankar & Deaton, Angus, 1996.
"The Demand for Food and Calories,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 133-62, February.
- Subramanian, S. & Deaton, A., 1994. "The Demand for Food and Calories," Papers 175, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Development Studies.
- Gaiha, Raghav, 2000. " On the Targeting of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in the Indian State of Maharashtra," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 203-19.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Raghav Gaiha, 2004. "Is There a Case for the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India? Some Recent Evidence," ASARC Working Papers 2004-09, Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
- R Gaiha & K Imai, 2006. "Vulnerability and poverty in rural India-estimates for rural south India," The School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 0602, Economics, The University of Manchester.
- Thankom Arun & Katsushi Imai & Frances Sinha, 2006. "Does the Microfinance Reduce Poverty in India? Propensity Score Matching based on a National-level Household Data," The School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 0625, Economics, The University of Manchester.
- R Gaiha & K Imai, 2005. "A Review of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," The School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 0513, Economics, The University of Manchester.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:13:y:2009:i:2:p:248-263For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or (Christopher F. Baum).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

