Description: Evaluating Workfare When the Work Is Unpleasant : Evidence for India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

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Evaluating Workfare When the Work Is Unpleasant : Evidence for India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

Prevailing practices in evaluating workfare programs have ignored the disutility of the type of work done, with theoretically ambiguous implications for the impacts on poverty. In the case of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Lagrange, Arthur Alik, Ravallion, Martin
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	ADULT MALE ANTI-POVERTY ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM BASE YEAR CHANGES IN POVERTY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE DAILY WAGE DECOMPOSABLE POVERTY DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT POLICY EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME FAMINE FARM PRODUCTIVITY FARMER FUNCTIONAL FORMS GINI COEFFICIENT GROSS WAGES HIGH WAGE HIGHER INEQUALITY HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS IMPACT ON POVERTY INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INCOME INCOME DISTRIBUTION INCOME GAINS INEQUALITY INEQUALITY MEASURES INVOLUNTARY UNEMPLOYMENT JOBS LABOR MARKETS LABOR SUPPLY LABOUR LORENZ CURVE MANUAL LABOR MEASUREMENT OF POVERTY MINIMUM WAGE POOR POOR COUNTRIES POOR PEOPLE POORER PEOPLE POVERTY GAP POVERTY IMPACT POVERTY LINE POVERTY LINES POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY PROGRAMS POVERTY RATE PRIVATE MARKET PRIVATE SECTOR PSE PUBLIC SPENDING PUBLIC WORKS REAL WAGE REGULAR JOB RIGHT TO WORK RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL EMPLOYMENT RURAL HOUSEHOLDS RURAL LABOR RURAL LABOR MARKET RURAL POOR RURAL POVERTY RURAL PUBLIC SELF-EMPLOYMENT SOCIAL PROGRAMS SQUARED POVERTY GAP INDEX SUPPLIERS TARGETING TOTAL WAGES TRANSFER BENEFITS UNEMPLOYMENT WAGE INCREASE WAGE RATE WAGES WEALTH WELFARE INDICATOR WELFARE MEASURE WORKERS WORKING DAYS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/16981158/evaluating-workfare-work-unpleasant-evidence-indias-national-rural-employment-guarantee-scheme http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12113

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Summary:	Prevailing practices in evaluating workfare programs have ignored the disutility of the type of work done, with theoretically ambiguous implications for the impacts on poverty. In the case of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, past assessments have relied solely on household consumption per person as the measure of economic welfare. The paper generalizes this measure to allow for the disutility of casual manual work. The new measure is calibrated to the distribution of the preference parameters implied by maximization of an idiosyncratic welfare function assuming that there is no rationing of the available work. The adjustment implies a substantially more "poor-poor" incidence of participation in the scheme than suggested by past methods. However, the overall impacts on poverty are lower, although still positive. The main conclusions are robust to a wide range of alternative parameter values and to allowing for involuntary unemployment using a sample of (self-declared) un-rationed workers.