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Rationing and Accuracy of Targeting in India: The Case of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act

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  • Upasak Das

Abstract

Rationing and its implication on accuracy of targeting of benefits to the intended beneficiaries in an anti-poverty programme is an essential component of its evaluation. Taking nationally representative data for 2009-2010 and 2011-2012, this paper evaluates the performance of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India in terms of targeting of benefits to the poorer households. It attempts to find if households, which did not get work after demanding are poorer than the ones, who got work and then explores, if the non-poor households got work for higher number of days under the programme in comparison to the poorer ones. Findings from the regressions, which control for the potential sample selection bias show that the poorer households in terms of monthly consumption expenditure have lesser probability of getting work in both the years, though traces of improvement in targeting is observed in 2011-2012. Poorer households are also found to be significantly associated with lower days of work in 2009-2010 compared to the relatively better-off ones. The results lay emphasis on the need to reduce rationing and generate awareness on the basic entitlements of the programme along with higher accountability and vigilance for better targeting.

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  • Upasak Das, 2015. "Rationing and Accuracy of Targeting in India: The Case of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 361-378, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:43:y:2015:i:3:p:361-378
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2015.1042445
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    3. Sergei Suarez Dillon Soares & Rafael Perez Ribas & Fabio Veras Soares, 2010. "Targeting and Coverage of the Bolsa Família Programme: Why Knowing What You Measure Is Important In Choosing the Numbers," Working Papers 71, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    4. Galasso, Emanuela & Ravallion, Martin, 2000. "Distributional outcomes of a decentralized welfare program," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2316, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mihir Shah, 2016. "Should India do away with the MGNREGA?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(1), pages 125-153, March.
    2. Sanghmitra S Acharya & Gobinda C Pal, 2017. "Implementation of Social Protection Programmes in India : Gaps and Challenges," Southern Voice Occasional Paper 40, Southern Voice.
    3. 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.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Liu, Yanyan, 2019. "Heterogeneous welfare impacts of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 98-111.

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