Author: Megan Sheahan, Yanyan Liu, Sudha Narayanan and Christopher B. Barrett
Title: Disaggregated labor supply implications of guaranteed employment in India
Abstract: How do household labor supply decisions change with the entry of a massive employment guarantee program? This paper explores the household labor allocation effects – disaggregated by gender, age group, task, and season – associated with India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Using three rounds of panel household survey data combined with project administrative recordsin Andhra Pradesh, our results suggest that participation in MGNREGS prompted an increase in overall household labor supply by about 12 days only in the summer slack labor season, mostly attributed to adult women. This expansion is not large enough to evade “crowding out” of some labor previously offered to non- MGNREGS labor tasks, and more so in the main agricultural seasons than the summer slack season. Time spent on paid and unpaid activities do not increase for youth and children in MGNREGS-participating households, suggesting no within-household substitution of labor towards younger members
Keywords: labor, employment guarantee, public works, gender, MGNREGS, India
JEL Code: D13, E24, J22, J38, J45
Weblink: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2020-035.pdf
