Government Hiring and Labor Market Equilibrium: Evidence From India’s Employment Guarantee

Type Report
Title Government Hiring and Labor Market Equilibrium: Evidence From India’s Employment Guarantee
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2011
URL http://www.isid.ac.in/~pu/conference/dec_11_conf/Papers/ClementImbert.pdf
Abstract
This paper presents evidence on the equilibrium labor market impacts of a large Indian rural workfare program. Our identication strategy compares changes in out-comes in districts that received the program earlier to districts that received it later. These dierence-in-dierences estimates reveal that following the introduction of the program, public employment increased by .3 days per prime-aged person per month (1.3% of private sector employment) more in early districts than in the rest of India. Casual wages increase by 4.5% more in early districts, and private sector work falls by 1.6%. These changes are concentrated in the dry season, during which the majority of public works employment is provided. Estimates are larger for districts in states known to have better implemented the technical and administrative requirements of the act. We use the estimates along with household-level data on labor supply and de- mand, consumption, and program participation to compute the implied welfare gains by consumption quintile. Our estimates suggest that the welfare gains to the poor from the equilibrium increase in private sector wages are large in absolute terms and large relative to the gains received solely by program participants. We conclude that the equilibrium labor market impacts are a rst order concern when comparing workfare programs with other anti-poverty programs such as a cash transfer.

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