IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v149y2022ics0305750x2100303x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Domestic violence and workfare: An evaluation of India’s MGNREGS

Author

Listed:
  • Sarma, Nayantara

Abstract

Economic shocks are commonly linked with domestic violence. This paper looks at how India’s workfare program mediates the effect of income shocks on domestic violence. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) guarantees 100 days of employment to rural households and acts as a form of insurance. Using the phased implementation of MGNREGS across districts in India from 2006 to 2008, I employ a difference-in-differences strategy to show that the introduction of the MGNREGS mitigates the effect of adverse rainfall shocks on officially reported domestic violence crimes at the district level by 8 to 22 percent. Using complementary household data from the India Human Development Survey, I explore the mediating effect of the MGNREGS on rainfall shocks and possible increases in women’s empowerment. There are positive effects of participating in the scheme on women’s freedom of mobility but inconclusive evidence on women’s say in household decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarma, Nayantara, 2022. "Domestic violence and workfare: An evaluation of India’s MGNREGS," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:149:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x2100303x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105688
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2100303X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105688?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    2. Sonia Bhalotra & Uma Kambhampati & Samantha Rawlings & Zahra Siddique, 2021. "Intimate Partner Violence: The Influence of Job Opportunities for Men and Women," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 461-479.
    3. Amy Farmer & Jill Tiefenthaler, 1997. "An Economic Analysis of Domestic Violence," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 337-358.
    4. Khanna, Gaurav & Zimmermann, Laura, 2017. "Guns and butter? Fighting violence with the promise of development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 120-141.
    5. Joshua D Merfeld, 2020. "Moving Up or Just Surviving? Nonfarm Self‐Employment in India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 32-53, January.
    6. Panda, Pradeep & Agarwal, Bina, 2005. "Marital violence, human development and women's property status in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 823-850, May.
    7. Lakshmi Iyer & Anandi Mani & Prachi Mishra & Petia Topalova, 2012. "The Power of Political Voice: Women's Political Representation and Crime in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 165-193, October.
    8. Seema Jayachandran, 2021. "Social Norms as a Barrier to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(3), pages 576-595, September.
    9. Merfeld, Joshua D., 2019. "Spatially heterogeneous effects of a public works program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 151-167.
    10. 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.
    11. Seema Jayachandran & Ilyana Kuziemko, 2011. "Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1485-1538.
    12. Sekhri, Sheetal & Storeygard, Adam, 2014. "Dowry deaths: Response to weather variability in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 212-223.
    13. 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.
    14. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    15. 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.
    16. Oster, Emily, 2009. "Does increased access increase equality? Gender and child health investments in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 62-76, May.
    17. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2016. "Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration, and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 46-98, January.
    18. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    19. Thiemo Fetzer, 2020. "Can Workfare Programs Moderate Conflict? Evidence from India," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3337-3375.
    20. Clément Imbert & John Papp, 2015. "Labor Market Effects of Social Programs: Evidence from India's Employment Guarantee," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 233-263, April.
    21. Ravi, Shamika & Engler, Monika, 2015. "Workfare as an Effective Way to Fight Poverty: The Case of India’s NREGS," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 57-71.
    22. Francis Bloch & Vijayendra Rao, 2002. "Terror as a Bargaining Instrument: A Case Study of Dowry Violence in Rural India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1029-1043, September.
    23. Melissa Hidrobo & Amber Peterman & Lori Heise, 2016. "The Effect of Cash, Vouchers, and Food Transfers on Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Northern Ecuador," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 284-303, July.
    24. Andres,Luis Alberto & Dasgupta,Basab & Joseph,George & Abraham,Vinoj & Correia,Maria C., 2017. "Precarious drop : reassessing patterns of female labor force participation in India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8024, The World Bank.
    25. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    26. Esther Gehrke, 2019. "An Employment Guarantee as Risk Insurance? Assessing the Effects of the NREGS on Agricultural Production Decisions," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 33(2), pages 413-435.
    27. Yoo-Mi Chin, 2012. "Male backlash, bargaining, or exposure reduction?: women’s working status and physical spousal violence in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 175-200, January.
    28. Aparna Mathur & Sita Nataraj Slavov, 2016. "The role of legislative change in reducing domestic violence against women in India," AEI Economics Working Papers 886036, American Enterprise Institute.
    29. Tauchen, Helen V & Witte, Ann Dryden & Long, Sharon K, 1991. "Domestic Violence: A Nonrandom Affair," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 32(2), pages 491-511, May.
    30. Lorenzo Blanco & Sandra Villa, 2008. "Sources of crime in the state of Veracruz: The role of female labor force participation and wage inequality," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 51-75.
    31. Rivers, Douglas & Vuong, Quang H., 1988. "Limited information estimators and exogeneity tests for simultaneous probit models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 347-366, November.
    32. Srinivasan, Sharada & Bedi, Arjun S., 2007. "Domestic Violence and Dowry: Evidence from a South Indian Village," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 857-880, May.
    33. Seema Jayachandran, 2006. "Selling Labor Low: Wage Responses to Productivity Shocks in Developing Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(3), pages 538-575, June.
    34. Johannes Haushofer & Charlotte Ringdal & Jeremy P. Shapiro & Xiao Yu Wang, 2019. "Income Changes and Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya," NBER Working Papers 25627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Kambhampati, Uma & Rawlings, Samantha & Siddique, Zahra, 2018. "Intimate Partner Violence and the Business Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 11274, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    36. Tagat, Anirudh, 2020. "Female matters: Impact of a workfare program on intra-household female decision-making in rural India," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    37. Jana Lenze & Stephan Klasen, 2017. "Does Women’s Labor Force Participation Reduce Domestic Violence? Evidence from Jordan," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 1-29, January.
    38. Mukesh Eswaran & Nisha Malhotra, 2011. "Domestic violence and women's autonomy in developing countries: theory and evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 44(4), pages 1222-1263, November.
    39. Ana Maria Buller & Amber Peterman & Meghna Ranganathan & Alexandra Bleile & Melissa Hidrobo & Lori Heise, 2018. "A Mixed-Method Review of Cash Transfers and Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 33(2), pages 218-258.
    40. Edward Miguel, 2005. "Poverty and Witch Killing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1153-1172.
    41. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    42. Dasgupta, Sukti. & Sudarshan, Ratna M., 2011. "Issues in labour market inequality and women's participation in India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme," ILO Working Papers 994617143402676, International Labour Organization.
    43. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Employment Programmes for the Poor and Female Empowerment: The Effect of NREGS on Gender-based Violence in India," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 27(2), pages 199-218, July.
    44. Alberto Alesina & Benedetta Brioschi & Eliana La Ferrara, 2021. "Violence Against Women: A Cross‐cultural Analysis for Africa," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 70-104, January.
    45. Linn, M.W. & Sandifer, R. & Stein, S., 1985. "Effects of unemployment on mental and physical health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 75(5), pages 502-506.
    46. Farzana Afridi & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Soham Sahoo, 2016. "Female labor force participation and child education in India: evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-27, December.
    47. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 420-445.
    48. repec:ilo:ilowps:461714 is not listed on IDEAS
    49. Edward Miguel & Shanker Satyanath & Ernest Sergenti, 2004. "Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(4), pages 725-753, August.
    50. Azam, Mehtabul, 2012. "The Impact of Indian Job Guarantee Scheme on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 6548, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    51. Banerjee, Rakesh & Maharaj, Riddhi, 2020. "Heat, infant mortality, and adaptation: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    52. Luke, Nancy & Munshi, Kaivan, 2011. "Women as agents of change: Female income and mobility in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 1-17, January.
    53. Thiemo Fetzer, 0. "Can Workfare Programs Moderate Conflict? Evidence from India," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3337-3375.
    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. Guimbeau, Amanda & Ji, Xinde James & Menon, Nidhiya, 2024. "Climate Shocks, Intimate Partner Violence, and the Protective Role of Climate-Resilience Projects," IZA Discussion Papers 17529, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Aldenis Vásquez & Rafael Alvarado & Brayan Tillaguango & Cem Işık & Muntasir Murshed, 2023. "Impact of Social and Institutional Indicators on the Homicide Rate in Ecuador: An Analysis Using Advanced Time Series Techniques," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-22, September.
    3. Debayan Pakrashi & Sarani Saha, 2024. "Intergenerational consequences of spousal violence: effect on nutritional status of children," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 67-94, March.

    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. Chatterjee, Jagori & Merfeld, Joshua D., 2021. "Protecting girls from droughts with social safety nets," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Sofia Amaral, 2015. "Do Improved Property Rights Decrease Violence Against Women in India?," Discussion Papers 15-10, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    3. Chatterjee, Jagori & Merfeld, Joshua D., 2020. "Protecting Girls from Droughts with Social Safety Nets," IZA Discussion Papers 13694, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Díaz, Juan-José & Saldarriaga, Victor, 2023. "A drop of love? Rainfall shocks and spousal abuse: Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Akyol, Pelin & Kırdar, Murat Güray, 2022. "Compulsory schooling reform and intimate partner violence in Turkey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    6. Klonner, Stefan & Oldiges, Christian, 2022. "The welfare effects of India’s rural employment guarantee," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    7. Bulte, Erwin & Lensink, Robert, 2019. "Women's empowerment and domestic abuse: Experimental evidence from Vietnam," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 172-191.
    8. Sonia Bhalotra & Uma Kambhampati & Samantha Rawlings & Zahra Siddique, 2021. "Intimate Partner Violence: The Influence of Job Opportunities for Men and Women," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 461-479.
    9. Siwan Anderson, 2022. "Unbundling female empowerment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1701, November.
    10. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Britto, Diogo & Pinotti, Paolo & Sampaio, Breno, 2021. "Job Displacement, Unemployment Benefits and Domestic Violence," IZA Discussion Papers 14543, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Jules Gazeaud & Victor Stephane, 2023. "Productive Workfare? Evidence from Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 265-290, January.
    12. Deininger,Klaus W. & Jin,Songqing & Nagarajan,Hari Krishnan & Singh,Sudhir K., 2020. "Political Reservation and Female Labor Force Participation in Rural India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9350, The World Bank.
    13. Calvi, Rossella & Keskar, Ajinkya, 2021. "'Til Dowry Do Us Part: Bargaining and Violence in Indian Families," CEPR Discussion Papers 15696, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Sara Cools & Martin Flatø & Andreas Kotsadam, 2020. "Rainfall shocks and intimate partner violence in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(3), pages 377-390, May.
    15. Olukorede Abiona & Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner, 2016. "The Impact of Household Shocks on Domestic Violence: Evidence from Tanzania," Discussion Papers in Economics 16/14, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    16. Pelin Akyol & Murat Guray Kirdar, 2021. "Does Education Really Cause Domestic Violence? Revisiting the Turkish Data," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2120, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    17. Akyol, Pelin & Kirdar, Murat Güray, 2020. "Does Education Really Cause Domestic Violence? Replication and Reappraisal of "For Better or For Worse? Education and the Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Turkey"," IZA Discussion Papers 14001, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Anders Kjelsrud & Kristin Vikan Sjurgard, 2022. "Public Work and Private Violence," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(9), pages 1791-1806, September.
    19. Roy, Shalini & Hidrobo, Melissa & Hoddinott, John F. & Ahmed, Akhter, 2021. "Transfers, behavior change communication, and intimate partner violence: Post-program evidence from rural Bangladesh," IFPRI book chapters, in: Securing food for all in Bangladesh, chapter 15, pages 549-590, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Teresa Molina & Mari Tanaka, 2023. "Globalization and Female Empowerment: Evidence from Myanmar," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(2), pages 519-565.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Domestic abuse; Employment; Spousal violence; MGNREGA; Workfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

    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:eee:wdevel:v:149:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x2100303x. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.