title: National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, poverty and prices in rural India.
abstract: The objective of this analysis is mainly to construct an intuitive measure of the performance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India. The focus is on divergence between demand and supply at the district level. Some related issues addressed are: (i) whether the gap between demand and supply responds to poverty; and (ii) whether recent hikes in NREGS wages are inflationary. Our analysis confirms responsiveness of the positive gap between demand and supply to poverty. Also, apprehensions expressed about the inflationary potential of recent hikes in NREGS wages have been confirmed. More importantly, higher NREGS wages are likely to undermine self-selection of the poor in it.
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, USA and University of Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Raghav
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gaiha
authors.forename: Vani S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.forename: Manoj K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: Katsushi S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Imai
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D011203:Poverty / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D011634:Public Health / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012423:Rural Health / Q000266:history; D012424:Rural Population / Q000266:history; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors / Q000266:history