Determinants of NREGA employment and its distribution across space and time: an inter-district analysis of West Bengal in India

One major index of judging the performance of NREGA program is to focus on the extent of employment days created together with the formation of local asset. A dynamic optimisation framework has been used to focus on the steady state optimal condition to maximise the number of employment days coherent with the objective of allaying poverty and generating local asset. The identification of determinants of employment days and local asset are supposed to add valuable information in this context. A simultaneous equation model has been used to show the endogenous relationship between per capita employment days and number of asset creation work. The pattern of concentration with respect to employment days generated across the districts over time has been found out by using Rosenbluth index. The number of employment days is crucially governed by the extent and smoothness in the conduit of fund flow, asset creation, households having job card and involved in the program as well as time gap in payments. Convergence of different rural development schemes together with certain earmarked percentage would allow for substantial demand driven employment throughout the year.