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Short-term Migration Rural Workfare Programs and Urban Labor Markets - Evidence from India

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  • Imbert, Clément

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

  • Papp, John

    (R.I.C.E)

Abstract

This paper provides some of the first evidence that rural development policies can have fundamental effects on the reallocation of labor between rural and urban areas. It studies the spillover effects of the world's largest rural workfare program, India's rural employment guarantee. We find that the workfare program has substantial con¬sequences: it reduces short-term (or seasonal) migration to urban areas by 9% and increases wages for manual, short-term work in urban areas by 6%. The implied elas¬ticity of unskilled wages with respect to short-term migration is high (-0.7).

Suggested Citation

  • Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2016. "Short-term Migration Rural Workfare Programs and Urban Labor Markets - Evidence from India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1116, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:1116
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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. Rodriguez, Zachary, 2022. "The power of employment: Effects of India’s employment guarantee on women empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    3. 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.
    4. Agha Ali Akram & Shyamal Chowdhury & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, 2017. "Effects of Emigration on Rural Labor Markets," NBER Working Papers 23929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. 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.
    6. Clement Imbert & Marlon Seror & Yifan Zhang & Yanos Zylberberg, 2022. "Migrants and Firms: Evidence from China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(6), pages 1885-1914, June.
    7. Bahal, G., 2017. "Estimating Transfer Multiplier using Spending on Rural Development Programs in India," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1709, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    8. David Lagakos & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Michael E. Waugh, 2023. "The Welfare Effects of Encouraging Rural–Urban Migration," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(3), pages 803-837, May.
    9. 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.
    10. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2020. "Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2018. "Costs and Benefits of Seasonal Migration : Evidence from India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1161, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    15. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah & Christophe Muller, 2017. "Maghreb Rural-Urban Migration: The Movement to Morocco’s Towns," Working Papers 1082, Economic Research Forum, revised 04 Oct 2017.
    16. Gudibande, Rohan Ravindra & Jacob, Arun, 2020. "Minimum wages for domestic workers: impact evaluation of the Indian experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    internal migration; workfare programs; spillover effects; india;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs

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