Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program

Public knowledge about India's ambitious Employment Guarantee Scheme is low in one of India's poorest states, Bihar, where participation is also unusually low. Is the solution simply to tell people their rights? Or does their lack of know...

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Main Authors: Ravallion, Martin, van de Walle, Dominique, Dutta, Puja, Murgai, Rinku
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18227716/testing-information-constraints-indias-largest-antipoverty-program
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15834
id okr-10986-15834
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-158342021-04-23T14:03:27Z Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program Ravallion, Martin van de Walle, Dominique Dutta, Puja Murgai, Rinku ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACCESS TO RADIOS BELIEFS CHILD CARE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS COLLABORATION COMMISSION ON POPULATION DEMOCRACY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT POLICY DISABILITY DISCUSSION DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DRINKING WATER ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS ECONOMICS FAMILY MEMBERS FERTILITY RATES FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS FOCUS GROUPS GENDER GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS HOUSEHOLD LEVEL HOUSING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IDEA IDEAS IDENTITY ILLITERACY IMMUNIZATION INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS INSIGHTS INTERVENTIONS KNOWLEDGE GAPS LABOR MARKET LACK OF INFORMATION LACK OF KNOWLEDGE LAND OWNERSHIP LEARNING LEGAL RIGHTS LEVELS OF EDUCATION LOWER FERTILITY MANDATES MANUAL LABOR MIGRANT MIGRATION OLD AGE PARTICIPATION RATES POLICY DECISIONS POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY RESEARCH POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER POLITICAL PARTICIPATION POOR FAMILIES POPULATION PROJECTIONS PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY SCHOOL PROGRESS PUBLIC AWARENESS PUBLIC GOOD PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE PUBLIC SERVICES RADIO ROLE OF WOMEN RURAL AREAS RURAL DEVELOPMENT RURAL POPULATION RURAL POVERTY SCHOOLING SERVICE DELIVERY SERVICE PROVIDERS SOCIAL GROUPS SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL NETWORKS TELEVISION TV TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE UNEMPLOYMENT VICTIMS Public knowledge about India's ambitious Employment Guarantee Scheme is low in one of India's poorest states, Bihar, where participation is also unusually low. Is the solution simply to tell people their rights? Or does their lack of knowledge reflect deeper problems of poor people's agency and an unresponsive supply side? This paper reports on an information campaign that was designed and implemented in the form of an entertaining movie to inform people of their rights under the scheme. In randomly-assigned villages, the movie brought significant gains in knowledge and more positive perceptions about the impact of the scheme. But objectively measured employment showed no gain on average, suggesting that the movie created a "groupthink," changing social perceptions about the scheme but not individual efficacy in accessing it. The paper concludes that awareness generation needs to go hand-in-hand with supply-side changes. 2013-09-25T21:26:28Z 2013-09-25T21:26:28Z 2013-09 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18227716/testing-information-constraints-indias-largest-antipoverty-program http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15834 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6598 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research South Asia India
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT
ACCESS TO INFORMATION
ACCESS TO RADIOS
BELIEFS
CHILD CARE
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
COLLABORATION
COMMISSION ON POPULATION
DEMOCRACY
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
DISABILITY
DISCUSSION
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DRINKING WATER
ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS
ECONOMICS
FAMILY MEMBERS
FERTILITY RATES
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS
FOCUS GROUPS
GENDER
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
HOUSEHOLD LEVEL
HOUSING
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IDEA
IDEAS
IDENTITY
ILLITERACY
IMMUNIZATION
INCIDENCE OF POVERTY
INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS
INSIGHTS
INTERVENTIONS
KNOWLEDGE GAPS
LABOR MARKET
LACK OF INFORMATION
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
LAND OWNERSHIP
LEARNING
LEGAL RIGHTS
LEVELS OF EDUCATION
LOWER FERTILITY
MANDATES
MANUAL LABOR
MIGRANT
MIGRATION
OLD AGE
PARTICIPATION RATES
POLICY DECISIONS
POLICY DISCUSSIONS
POLICY RESEARCH
POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
POOR FAMILIES
POPULATION PROJECTIONS
PRIMARY EDUCATION
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PROGRESS
PUBLIC AWARENESS
PUBLIC GOOD
PUBLIC INFORMATION
PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
PUBLIC SERVICES
RADIO
ROLE OF WOMEN
RURAL AREAS
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
RURAL POPULATION
RURAL POVERTY
SCHOOLING
SERVICE DELIVERY
SERVICE PROVIDERS
SOCIAL GROUPS
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
SOCIAL INTERACTION
SOCIAL NETWORKS
TELEVISION
TV
TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE
UNEMPLOYMENT
VICTIMS
spellingShingle ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT
ACCESS TO INFORMATION
ACCESS TO RADIOS
BELIEFS
CHILD CARE
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
COLLABORATION
COMMISSION ON POPULATION
DEMOCRACY
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
DISABILITY
DISCUSSION
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DRINKING WATER
ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS
ECONOMICS
FAMILY MEMBERS
FERTILITY RATES
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS
FOCUS GROUPS
GENDER
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
HOUSEHOLD LEVEL
HOUSING
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IDEA
IDEAS
IDENTITY
ILLITERACY
IMMUNIZATION
INCIDENCE OF POVERTY
INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS
INSIGHTS
INTERVENTIONS
KNOWLEDGE GAPS
LABOR MARKET
LACK OF INFORMATION
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
LAND OWNERSHIP
LEARNING
LEGAL RIGHTS
LEVELS OF EDUCATION
LOWER FERTILITY
MANDATES
MANUAL LABOR
MIGRANT
MIGRATION
OLD AGE
PARTICIPATION RATES
POLICY DECISIONS
POLICY DISCUSSIONS
POLICY RESEARCH
POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
POOR FAMILIES
POPULATION PROJECTIONS
PRIMARY EDUCATION
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PROGRESS
PUBLIC AWARENESS
PUBLIC GOOD
PUBLIC INFORMATION
PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
PUBLIC SERVICES
RADIO
ROLE OF WOMEN
RURAL AREAS
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
RURAL POPULATION
RURAL POVERTY
SCHOOLING
SERVICE DELIVERY
SERVICE PROVIDERS
SOCIAL GROUPS
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
SOCIAL INTERACTION
SOCIAL NETWORKS
TELEVISION
TV
TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE
UNEMPLOYMENT
VICTIMS
Ravallion, Martin
van de Walle, Dominique
Dutta, Puja
Murgai, Rinku
Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program
geographic_facet South Asia
India
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6598
description Public knowledge about India's ambitious Employment Guarantee Scheme is low in one of India's poorest states, Bihar, where participation is also unusually low. Is the solution simply to tell people their rights? Or does their lack of knowledge reflect deeper problems of poor people's agency and an unresponsive supply side? This paper reports on an information campaign that was designed and implemented in the form of an entertaining movie to inform people of their rights under the scheme. In randomly-assigned villages, the movie brought significant gains in knowledge and more positive perceptions about the impact of the scheme. But objectively measured employment showed no gain on average, suggesting that the movie created a "groupthink," changing social perceptions about the scheme but not individual efficacy in accessing it. The paper concludes that awareness generation needs to go hand-in-hand with supply-side changes.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Ravallion, Martin
van de Walle, Dominique
Dutta, Puja
Murgai, Rinku
author_facet Ravallion, Martin
van de Walle, Dominique
Dutta, Puja
Murgai, Rinku
author_sort Ravallion, Martin
title Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program
title_short Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program
title_full Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program
title_fullStr Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program
title_full_unstemmed Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program
title_sort testing information constraints on india's largest antipoverty program
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2013
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18227716/testing-information-constraints-indias-largest-antipoverty-program
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15834
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