IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v56y2021i2p380-405.html

Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Manisha Shah
  • Bryce Millett Steinberg

Abstract

We examine the impact of an increase in the demand for low-skill labor caused by a large public works program (NREGS) on schooling outcomes. Exploiting the staged rollout of the program for causal identification, we show exposure to workfare decreases enrollment by 1–3.5 percentage points and increases labor by four percentage points among adolescents, with girls primarily substituting into unpaid domestic work. We also find evidence that children exposed to the program in utero to age four benefit later in life. We conclude that the opportunity cost of schooling is an important determinant of educational investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Manisha Shah & Bryce Millett Steinberg, 2021. "Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 56(2), pages 380-405.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:56:y:2021:i:2:p:380-405
    Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.56.2.1117-9201R2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/56/2/380
    Download Restriction: A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:56:y:2021:i:2:p:380-405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.