IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/man/sespap/1412.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Workfare as "Collateral": The Case of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India

Author

Listed:
  • Subhasish Dey
  • Katsushi S. Imai

Abstract

This paper argues that a major beneficial impact of workfare programs is through their role in allowing participants to improve their access to “credit”. Sustained program participation serves as “collateral” for households’ acquisition of informal credit, leading to the improvement in economic security and poverty reduction. Using a three-round household panel dataset in India in 2009-2012, we produce robust evidence that continuous participation in NREGS facilitates credit acquisition, increases income and consumption, and reduces consumption variability. A conceptual framework using an infinitely repeated trilateral stage game among lender, workfare participant, and local politician is developed to support our empirical findings.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Subhasish Dey & Katsushi S. Imai, 2014. "Workfare as "Collateral": The Case of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1412, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:man:sespap:1412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/soss/economics/discussionpapers/EDP-1412.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Datt, Gaurav & Ravallion, Martin, 1994. "Transfer Benefits from Public-Works Employment: Evidence for Rural India," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(427), pages 1346-1369, November.
    2. Pasquale Scandizzo & Raghav Gaiha & Katsushi Imai, 2009. "Does the employment guarantee scheme stabilize household incomes in rural India?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(12), pages 1221-1225.
    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. Katsushi S. Imai & MD. Shafiul Azam, 2011. "Does Microfinance Reduce Poverty in Bangladesh? New Evidence from Household Panel Data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 633-653, October.
    5. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1995. "Group lending, repayment incentives and social collateral," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-18, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Drew Fudenberg & Eric Maskin, 2008. "The Folk Theorem In Repeated Games With Discounting Or With Incomplete Information," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Drew Fudenberg & David K Levine (ed.), A Long-Run Collaboration On Long-Run Games, chapter 11, pages 209-230, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Estimating the Benefit Incidence of an Antipoverty Program by Propensity-Score Matching," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 21(1), pages 19-30, January.
    9. 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.
    10. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1979. "Equilibrium in supergames with the overtaking criterion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-9, August.
    11. Takahashi, Satoru, 2010. "Community enforcement when players observe partners' past play," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 42-62, January.
    12. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    13. Shankar, Shylashri & Gaiha, Raghav, 2013. "Battling Corruption: Has NREGA Reached India's Rural Poor?," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198085003.
    14. K. Subbarao, 1997. "Public Works as an Anti-Poverty Program: An Overview of Cross-Country Experience," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(2), pages 678-683.
    15. Hoff, Karla & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1990. "Imperfect Information and Rural Credit Markets--Puzzles and Policy Perspectives," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 4(3), pages 235-250, September.
    16. Subbarao, Kalanidhi, 2003. "Systemic shocks and social protection : role and effectiveness of public works programs," Social Protection and Labor Policy and Technical Notes 25606, The World Bank.
    17. Subbarao,Kalanidhi, 2003. "Systemic shocks and social protection : role and effectiveness of public works programs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 25606, The World Bank.
    18. Michihiro Kandori, 1992. "Social Norms and Community Enforcement," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 59(1), pages 63-80.
    19. Chen, Shaohua & Mu, Ren & Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "Are there lasting impacts of aid to poor areas ? Evidence from rural China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4084, The World Bank.
    20. Sascha O. Becker & Andrea Ichino, 2002. "Estimation of average treatment effects based on propensity scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 2(4), pages 358-377, November.
    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. Clive Bell & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, 2020. "Income Guarantees and Borrowing in Risky Environments: Evidence from India's Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(347), pages 763-812, July.
    2. Pajaron, Marjorie & Latinazo, Cara T. & Trinidad, Enrico G., 2020. "The children are alright: Revisiting the impact of parental migration in the Philippines," GLO Discussion Paper Series 507, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Anindya Bhattacharya & Anirban Kar & Alita Nandi, 2016. "Local Institutional Structure and Clientelistic Access to Employment: The Case of MGNREGS in Three States of India," Working Papers id:11549, eSocialSciences.

    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. 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.
    2. Milan Vodopivec, 2004. "Income Support for the Unemployed : Issues and Options," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14922.
    3. Narayanan, Sudha & Das, Upasak & Liu, Yanyan & Barrett, Christopher B., 2017. "The “Discouraged Worker Effect” in Public Works Programs: Evidence from the MGNREGA in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 31-44.
    4. Berg, Erlend & Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Rajasekhar, D. & Manjula, R., 2018. "Can public works increase equilibrium wages? Evidence from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 239-254.
    5. Jindani, Sam, 2020. "Community enforcement using modal actions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    6. Daron Acemoglu & Alexander Wolitzky, 2015. "Sustaining Cooperation: Community Enforcement vs. Specialized Enforcement," NBER Working Papers 21457, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Goeschl, Timo & Jarke, Johannes, 2014. "Trust, but verify? When trustworthiness is observable only through (costly) monitoring," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 20, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    8. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Income gains to the poor from workfare - estimates for Argentina's TRABAJAR Program," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2149, The World Bank.
    9. Sudha Narayanan Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber, 2016. "Safety Nets for Food and Nutritional Security in India," FOODSECURE Working papers 37, LEI Wageningen UR.
    10. Vogt, Carsten, 2000. "The evolution of cooperation in Prisoners' Dilemma with an endogenous learning mutant," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 347-373, July.
    11. Babu, Suresh Chandra, 2002. "Social Safety Nets for Poverty Reduction in South Asia – Global Experiences," Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA), vol. 5, pages 1-9.
    12. Sudha Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber, 2015. "Social safety nets for food and nutritional security in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2015-031, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    13. Luciana Cecilia Moscoso Boedo & Lucia Quesada & Marcela Tarazona, 2013. "Cooperation among Strangers in the Presence of Defectors: An Experimental Study," Working Papers DTE 567, CIDE, División de Economía.
    14. Joyee Deb, 2008. "Cooperation and Community Responsibility: A Folk Theorem for Repeated Matching Games with Names," Working Papers 08-24, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    15. Merfeld, Joshua D., 2019. "Spatially heterogeneous effects of a public works program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 151-167.
    16. Martin Ravallion, 2021. "On the Gains from Tradeable Benefits-in-Kind," Working Papers gueconwpa~21-21-13, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    17. Camera, Gabriele & Gioffré, Alessandro, 2017. "Asymmetric social norms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 27-30.
    18. Eleonora Patacchini & Edoardo Rainone, 2017. "Social Ties and the Demand for Financial Services," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 35-88, October.
    19. Murgai, Rinku & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Is a guaranteed living wage a good anti-poverty policy?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3640, The World Bank.
    20. Sudha Narayanan & Christian Oldiges & Shree Saha, 2022. "Does workfare work? India's employment guarantee during COVID‐19," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 82-108, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:1412. 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.