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The Impact of India's Rural Employment Guarantee on Demand for Agricultural Technology

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  • Anil K. Bhargava

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is approaching eight years of implementation. Since 2006, it has offered up to 100 days per year of guaranteed public works employment to tens of millions of rural Indian households. It is intended to augment the purchasing power of the rural poor during droughts and slack agricultural production periods. Given its scale, it has the potential to generate additional ripples throughout the rural economy. Recent working papers have explored NREGA’s effect of higher agricultural wages. This paper investigates whether this increase in the opportunity cost of agricultural labor incentivizes farm owners to adopt labor-saving agricultural technology.

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  • Anil K. Bhargava, 2014. "The Impact of India's Rural Employment Guarantee on Demand for Agricultural Technology," Working Papers id:6305, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:6305
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    Cited by:

    1. Gehrke, Esther & Hartwig, Renate, 2018. "Productive effects of public works programs: What do we know? What should we know?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 111-124.
    2. Bose, Nayana, 2017. "Raising Consumption Through India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 245-263.
    3. Gehrke, Esther & Hartwig, Renate, 2015. "How can public works programmes create sustainable employment?," IDOS Discussion Papers 11/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    4. Deininger,Klaus W. & Nagarajan,Hari Krishnan & Singh,Sudhir K. & Deininger,Klaus W. & Nagarajan,Hari Krishnan & Singh,Sudhir K., 2016. "Short-term effects of India's employment guarantee program on labor markets and agricultural productivity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7665, The World Bank.
    5. Gehrke, Esther, 2015. "Can public works infrastructure affect employment outcomes? Evidence from the NREGS in India," IDOS Discussion Papers 9/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    6. 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.
    7. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2018. "Infrastructure Grants and the Performance of Microenterprises," IZA Discussion Papers 11749, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2022. "Infrastructure maintenance and rural economic activity: Evidence from India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    9. Chakravarty, Shourish & Mullally, Conner, 2018. "Impact of NREGS on Forest Cover," 2018 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2018, Jacksonville, Florida 266696, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    10. Misra, Kartik, 2019. "Does historical land inequality attenuate the positive impact of India’s employment guarantee program?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Chakravarty, Shourish & Mullally, Conner C., 2020. "Impacts of anti-poverty programs on land use change – the case of NREGS in India," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304640, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Loewe, Markus & Zintl, Tina & Fritzenkötter, Jörn & Gantner, Verena & Kaltenbach, Regina & Pohl, Lena, 2020. "Community effects of cash-for-work programmes in Jordan: Supporting social cohesion, more equitable gender roles and local economic development in contexts of flight and migration," IDOS Studies, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), volume 103, number 103, July.
    13. Girish Bahal, 2020. "Estimating the Impact of Welfare Programs on Agricultural Output: Evidence from India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(3), pages 982-998, May.
    14. 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.
    15. Alwin D'Souza & Ashok K. Mishra & Stefan Hirsch, 2020. "Enhancing food security through diet quality: The role of nonfarm work in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 95-110, January.
    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. 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.
    18. Chindarkar, Namrata & Chen, Yvonne Jie & Sathe, Shilpa, 2020. "Link between farm electricity supply management, farm investments, and farm incomes - Evidence from India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    19. 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.
    20. Dsouza, Alwin & Mishra, Ashok K. & Tripathi, Amarnath, 2018. "Improving Diet Quality through Off-Farm Work: Empirical Evidence from India," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274494, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    21. Satadru Das & Naci Mocan, 2020. "Analyzing The Impact Of The World'S Largest Public Works Project On Crime," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(3), pages 1167-1182, July.
    22. Prasann, Ashesh, 2015. "The Spillover Effects of Public Works on Migration, Labor Allocation and Wages: Evidence from National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, India," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205750, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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