IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/man/sespap/0908.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

National rural employment guarantee scheme, poverty and prices in rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Raghav Gaiha
  • Vani Kulkarni
  • Manoj Pandey
  • Katsushi Imai

Abstract

The objective of this analysis is mainly to construct an intuitive measure of the performance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India -a nation-wide poverty alleviation programme which was introduced in 2005. The focus is on excess demand at the district level. Some related issues addressed are (i) whether excess demand responds to poverty, and (ii) whether recent hikes in NREGS wages are inflationary. Our analysis confirms responsiveness of excess demand to poverty. Also, apprehensions expressed about the inflationary potential of recent hikes in NREGS wages have been confirmed. More importantly, higher NREGS wages are likely to undermine self-selection of the poor in it. So, in order to realise the poverty reducing potential of this scheme, a policy imperative is to ensure a speedier matching of demand and supply in districts that are highly poverty prone, as also to avoid the trade-offs between poverty reduction and inflation.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Raghav Gaiha & Vani Kulkarni & Manoj Pandey & Katsushi Imai, 2009. "National rural employment guarantee scheme, poverty and prices in rural India," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0908, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:man:sespap:0908
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/soss/economics/discussionpapers/EDP-0908.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jha, Raghbendra & Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Gaiha, Raghav & Shankar, Shylashri, 2009. ""Capture" of anti-poverty programs: An analysis of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program in India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 456-464, September.
    2. Pasquale Scandizzo & Raghav Gaiha & Katsushi Imai, 2009. "Option Values, Switches, and Wages: An Analysis of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 248-263, May.
    3. 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 249-261, March.
    4. Jha, Raghbendra & Gaiha, Raghav & Sharma, Anurag, 2009. "Calorie and Micronutrient Deprivation and Poverty Nutrition Traps in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 982-991, May.
    5. Raghav Gaiha, 2000. "Do Anti-poverty Programmes Reach the Rural Poor in India?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 71-95.
    6. Raghav Gaiha, 1995. "Does Agricultural Growth Matter in Poverty Alleviation?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 285-304, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clément Imbert & John Papp, 2012. "Equilibrium Distributional Impacts of Government. Employment Programs: Evidence from India's Employment Guarantee," PSE Working Papers halshs-00680451, HAL.
    2. Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Shylashri Shankar & Manoj K Pandey, 2013. "Targeting Accuracy of the NREG: Evidence from Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 25(5), pages 758-777, December.
    3. Deepak, Shah, 2012. "Implementation of NREGA in Maharashtra: experiences, challenges and ways forward," MPRA Paper 39270, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Shah, Deepak K. & Mohanty, Sovna, 2010. "Implementation of NREGA During Eleventh Plan in Maharashtra: Experiences, Challenges and Ways Forward," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 65(3), pages 1-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raghav Gaiha, 2004. "Is There a Case for the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India? Some Recent Evidence," ASARC Working Papers 2004-09, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    2. R Gaiha & K Imai, 2005. "A Review of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0513, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    3. Klonner, Stefan & Oldiges , Christian, 2014. "Safety Net for India's Poor or Waste of Public Funds? Poverty and Welfare in the Wake of the World's Largest Job Guarantee Program," Working Papers 0564, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    4. Raghbendra Jha, 2010. "Food security and small landholders in south Asia," ASARC Working Papers 2010-21, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    5. Jha, Raghbendra & Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Gaiha, Raghav, 2011. "Social safety nets and nutrient deprivation: An analysis of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program and the Public Distribution System in India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 189-201, April.
    6. Parantap Basu & Rajesh Raj Natarajan & Kunal Sen, 2020. "Administrative failures in anti-poverty programmes and household welfare: An investigation of India's employment guarantee programme," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-41, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Shah, Deepak K. & Mohanty, Sovna, 2010. "Implementation of NREGA During Eleventh Plan in Maharashtra: Experiences, Challenges and Ways Forward," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 65(3), pages 1-12.
    8. Imai, Katsushi S. & Gaiha, Raghav & Thapa, Ganesh, 2015. "Does non-farm sector employment reduce rural poverty and vulnerability? Evidence from Vietnam and India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 47-61.
    9. Raghav Gaiha & Katsushi Imai, 2004. "Vulnerability, shocks and persistence of poverty: estimates for semi-arid rural South India," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 261-281.
    10. repec:bri:cmpowp:13/317 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Arnab Basu, 2013. "Impact of rural employment guarantee schemes on seasonal labor markets: optimum compensation and workers’ welfare," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(1), pages 1-34, March.
    12. Jha, Raghbendra & Gaiha, Raghav & Pandey, Manoj K., 2012. "Net transfer benefits under India's rural employment guarantee scheme," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 296-311.
    13. Ravallion, Martin, 2019. "Guaranteed employment or guaranteed income?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 209-221.
    14. Katsushi S. Imai, 2011. "Poverty, undernutrition and vulnerability in rural India: role of rural public works and food for work programmes," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 669-691, November.
    15. Arthur Alik-Lagrange & Martin Ravallion, 2015. "Inconsistent Policy Evaluation: A Case Study for a Large Workfare Program," NBER Working Papers 21041, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Katsushi S. Imai & Raghav Gaiha & Woojin Kang & Samuel Annim & Ganesh Thapa, 2012. "Does Risk Matter? A Semi-parametric Model for Educational Choices in the Presence of Uncertainty," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1226, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    17. Erlend Berg & Sambit Bhattacharyya & D Rajasekhar & R Manjula, 2014. "Can Public Employment Schemes Increase Equilibrium Wages? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/317, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    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. Subhasish Dey & Katsushi S. Imai, 2014. "Workfare as "Collateral": The case of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-27, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Mar 2015.
    20. Alik-Lagrange, Arthur & Ravallion, Martin, 2018. "Workfare versus transfers in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 244-258.
    21. Katsushi S. Imai & Raghav Gaiha & Ganesh Thapa & Samuel Kobina Annim, 2013. "Financial Crisis In Asia: Its Genesis, Severity And Impact On Poverty And Hunger," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 1105-1116, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:man:sespap:0908. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 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: Marianne Sensier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/semanuk.html .

    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.