IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2019-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

No Employment without Participation : An Evaluation of India's Employment Program in Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Author

Listed:
  • Kartik Misra

    (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) provides 100 days of employment in a year to every rural household at the legal minimum wage. At the national level this programme has been highly successful in providing an income safety-net to small peasants and landless workers. However, in the poorer states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand the provision of public employment under NREGA has been inadequate. Using evidence from field research in the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh, this paper aims to study how awareness among programme beneficiaries about their legal entitlements and at various levels of government determines the provision of NREGA employment in one of the poorest regions of the country. Further, we discuss the impact of NREGA on agricultural productivity and wage bargaining by landless workers who are the intended beneficiaries of NREGA. Our findings suggest that patron-client exchanges between the local elite and NREGA beneficiaries determines the provision of public employment and generates rents for the local elite. Therefore, there is urgent need for increasing transparency in NREGA provision and creating mechanisms to hold elected representatives and government functionaries accountable to NREGA beneficiaries.

Suggested Citation

  • Kartik Misra, 2019. "No Employment without Participation : An Evaluation of India's Employment Program in Eastern Uttar Pradesh," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-13, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2019-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2019-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Niehaus & Sandip Sukhtankar, 2013. "Corruption Dynamics: The Golden Goose Effect," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 230-269, November.
    2. Borooah, Vani, 2008. "Deprivation, Violence, and Conflict: An Analysis of Naxalite Activity in the Districts of India," MPRA Paper 19425, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. 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.
    4. Zimmermann, Laura V, 2012. "Labor Market Impacts of a Large-Scale Public Works Program: Evidence from the Indian Employment Guarantee Scheme," IZA Discussion Papers 6858, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Ravallion, Martin & van de Walle, Dominique & Dutta, Puja & Murgai, Rinku, 2015. "Empowering poor people through public information? Lessons from a movie in rural India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 13-22.
    6. 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.
    7. Banerjee, Abhijit & Somanathan, Rohini, 2007. "The political economy of public goods: Some evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 287-314, March.
    8. 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.
    9. Basu, Parantap & Sen, Kunal, 2015. "Welfare Implications of India's Employment Guarantee Programme with a Wage Payment Delay," IZA Discussion Papers 9454, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Magda Tsaneva & Uttara Balakrishnan, 2019. "The Effect of a Workfare Programme on Psychological Wellbeing in India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(12), pages 2593-2609, December.
    11. Bardhan, Pranab K, 1980. "Interlocking Factor Markets and Agrarian Development: A Review of Issues," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(1), pages 82-98, March.
    12. 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.
    13. Pradhan, Narayan, 2013. "Persistence of Informal Credit in Rural India: Evidence from ‘All-India Debt and Investment Survey’ and Beyond," MPRA Paper 80381, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. 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.
    15. Girard, Alexandra M., 2014. "Stepping into Formal Politics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-18.
    16. 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.
    17. Siwan Anderson, 2011. "Caste as an Impediment to Trade," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 239-263, January.
    18. Pailler, Sharon & Tsaneva, Magda, 2018. "The effects of climate variability on psychological well-being in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 15-26.
    19. Kartik Misra, 2019. "Is India’s Employment Guarantee Program Successfully Challenging Her Historical Inequalities?," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-09, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    20. Scott, James C., 1972. "Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(1), pages 91-113, March.
    21. Dreze, Jean & Sen, Amartya, 1999. "India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198295280.
    22. Sonalde Desai & Prem Vashishtha & Omkar Joshi, 2015. "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A Catalyst for Rural Transformation," Working Papers id:7259, eSocialSciences.
    23. Raabe, Katharina & Birner, Regina & Sekher, Madhushree & Gayathridevi, K.G. & Shilpi, Amrita & Schiffer, Eva, 2010. "How to overcome the governance challenges of implementing NREGA," IFPRI discussion papers 963, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    24. 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.
    25. Kareemulla, K. & Kumar, Shalander & Reddy, K.S. & Rao, C.A. Rama & Venkateswarlu, B., 2010. "Impact of NREGS on Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Capital Formation," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 65(3), pages 1-16.
    26. Bose, Nayana, 2017. "Raising Consumption Through India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 245-263.
    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. 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.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Kartik Misra, 2022. "No employment without participation: An evaluation of India's employment programme in eastern Uttar Pradesh," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(6), November.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Nagarajan, Hari K & Singh, Sudhir K, 2020. "Women's political leadership and economic empowerment: Evidence from public works in India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 277-291.
    5. Klonner, Stefan & Oldiges, Christian, 2022. "The welfare effects of India’s rural employment guarantee," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Kartik Misra, 2019. "Is India’s Employment Guarantee Program Successfully Challenging Her Historical Inequalities?," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-09, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    7. Bahal, Girish & Shrivastava, Anand, 2021. "Supply variabilities in public workfares," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Deininger, Klaus & Liu, Yanyan, 2013. "Welfare and poverty impacts of India’s national rural employment guarantee scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh:," IFPRI discussion papers 1289, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Drèze, Jean & Khera, Reetika, 2017. "Recent Social Security Initiatives in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 555-572.
    12. Parmar, Divya & Banerjee, Aneesh, 2019. "Impact of an employment guarantee scheme on utilisation of maternal healthcare services: Results from a natural experiment in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 285-293.
    13. Bahal, G. & Shrivastava, A., 2016. "Labor Market Effects of Inconsistent Policy Interventions: Evidence from India’s Employment Guarantees," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1669, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    14. Laura Zimmermann, 2014. "Public works programs in developing countries have the potential to reduce poverty," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-25, May.
    15. Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Sushobhan Mahata & Salonkara Chaudhuri, 2022. "COVID-19 disaster and employment generation program in a developing economy," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(1), pages 46-64, June.
    16. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2020. "Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    17. 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.
    18. Deepti Goel & Ashwini Deshpande, 2016. "Identity, Perceptions and Institutions: Caste Differences in Earnings from Self-Employment in India," Working papers 259, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    19. 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.
    20. Mushtaq Ahmad Malla, 2020. "MGNREGA in Kashmir: An Analysis of Labour Market Outcomes and Livelihood Security," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 424-446, December.

    More about this item

    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:ums:papers:2019-13. 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: Daniele Girardi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.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.