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Welfare and poverty impacts of India’s national rural employment guarantee scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh:

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  • Deininger, Klaus
  • Liu, Yanyan

Abstract

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is one of the largest public works programs globally. Understanding the impacts of NREGS and the pathway through which its impacts are realized thus has important policy implications. We use a three-round 4,000-household panel from Andhra Pradesh together with administrative data to explore short- and medium-term poverty and welfare effects of NREGS. Triple difference estimates suggest that participants significantly increase consumption (protein and energy intake) in the short run and accumulate more nonfinancial assets in the medium term.

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  • Deininger, Klaus & Liu, Yanyan, 2013. "Welfare and poverty impacts of India’s national rural employment guarantee scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh:," IFPRI discussion papers 1289, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1289
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    Cited by:

    1. Parmar, Divya & Banerjee, Aneesh, 2019. "Impact of an employment guarantee scheme on utilisation of maternal healthcare services: Results from a natural experiment in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 285-293.
    2. Bose, Nayana, 2017. "Raising Consumption Through India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 245-263.
    3. C. Justin Cook & Manisha Shah, 2022. "Aggregate Effects from Public Works: Evidence from India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(4), pages 797-806, October.
    4. Das, Upasak & Maiorano, Diego, 2019. "Post-clientelistic initiatives in a patronage democracy: The distributive politics of India’s MGNREGA," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 239-252.
    5. Sheahan, Megan & Liu, Yanyan & Barrett, Christopher B. & Narayanan, Sudha, 2014. "The political economy of MGNREGS spending in Andhra Pradesh:," IFPRI discussion papers 1371, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Zimmermann, Laura, 2020. "Why Guarantee Employment? Evidence from a Large Indian Public-Works Program," GLO Discussion Paper Series 504, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Megan Sheahan & Yanyan Liu & Christopher B Barrett & Sudha Narayanan, 2018. "Preferential Resource Spending under an Employment Guarantee: The Political Economy of MGNREGS in Andhra Pradesh," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 551-569.
    8. Beegle, Kathleen & Galasso, Emanuela & Goldberg, Jessica, 2017. "Direct and indirect effects of Malawi's public works program on food security," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 1-23.
    9. Bhargava, Anil K., 2015. "NREGA's Impact on Agricultural Production, Labor, and Technology Adoption: New Evidence from a Detailed Indian Household-Plot Panel," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205695, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Sinduja Srinivasan, 2014. "Impact of Public Works on Household Occupational Choice Evidence from NREGS in India," Working Papers WR-1053, RAND Corporation.
    11. Alik-Lagrange, Arthur & Buehren, Niklas & Goldstein, Markus & Hoogeveen, Johannes, 2023. "Welfare impacts of public works in fragile and conflict affected economies: The Londö public works in the Central African Republic," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    12. Scognamillo, Antonio & Sitko, Nicholas J., 2021. "Leveraging social protection to advance climate-smart agriculture: An empirical analysis of the impacts of Malawi’s Social Action Fund (MASAF) on farmers’ adoption decisions and welfare outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    13. Jules Gazeaud & Eric Mvukiyehe & Olivier Sterck, 2023. "Cash Transfers and Migration: Theory and Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(1), pages 143-157, January.
    14. Deininger, Klaus & Nagarajan, Hari K & Singh, Sudhir K, 2020. "Women's political leadership and economic empowerment: Evidence from public works in India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 277-291.
    15. Das, Ritanjan & Dey, Subhasish & Neogi, Ranjita, 2021. "Across the stolen Ponds: The political geography of social welfare in rural eastern India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    16. Deepak Varshney & Deepti Goel & J. V. Meenakshi, 2018. "The Impact of MGNREGA on Agricultural Outcomes and the Rural Labour Market: A Matched DID Approach," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(4), pages 589-621, December.
    17. World Bank Group, 2015. "India Development Update, April 2015," World Bank Publications - Reports 21872, The World Bank Group.
    18. Dutta, Puja & Murgai, Rinku & Ravallion., Martin & van de Walle, Dominique, 2012. "Does India's employment guarantee scheme guarantee employment ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6003, The World Bank.
    19. Sheahan, Megan & Liu, Yanyan & Narayanan, Sudha & Barrett, Christopher B., 2015. "Disaggregated labor supply implications of guaranteed employment in India," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 237345, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Drèze, Jean & Khera, Reetika, 2017. "Recent Social Security Initiatives in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 555-572.

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    Keywords

    employment; social safety nets; rural areas; Economic development; social policies; Public investment; Labor market; Governance;
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