A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies

A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies

This paper revisits impact evaluation studies on the largest public workfare in the world, NREGA. In an environment where randomization is not feasible, I show why an impact evaluation exercise on NREGA should acknowledge the existence of an older...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bahal, Girish
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
IMPACT EVALUATION
PUBLIC WORKFARE
NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT
TREATMENT-CONTROL
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/123811635968088739/A-Tale-of-Two-Programs-Assessing-Treatment-and-Control-in-NREGA-Studies
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36486
id okr-10986-36486
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-364862021-11-23T05:10:52Z A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies Bahal, Girish IMPACT EVALUATION PUBLIC WORKFARE NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT TREATMENT-CONTROL EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM This paper revisits impact evaluation studies on the largest public workfare in the world, NREGA. In an environment where randomization is not feasible, I show why an impact evaluation exercise on NREGA should acknowledge the existence of an older program, SGRY. Using novel district-level expenditure data on SGRY, this article shows how ignoring the older program is likely to underestimate the general equilibrium impact of the employment policy on various relevant socio-economic outcomes. In most cases, ignoring SGRY underestimates NREGA’s impact by 30–40 percent. 2021-11-04T18:32:36Z 2021-11-04T18:32:36Z 2021-11 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/123811635968088739/A-Tale-of-Two-Programs-Assessing-Treatment-and-Control-in-NREGA-Studies http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36486 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9835 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper 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
topic IMPACT EVALUATION
PUBLIC WORKFARE
NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT
TREATMENT-CONTROL
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
spellingShingle IMPACT EVALUATION
PUBLIC WORKFARE
NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT
TREATMENT-CONTROL
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
Bahal, Girish
A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies
geographic_facet South Asia
India
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9835
description This paper revisits impact evaluation studies on the largest public workfare in the world, NREGA. In an environment where randomization is not feasible, I show why an impact evaluation exercise on NREGA should acknowledge the existence of an older program, SGRY. Using novel district-level expenditure data on SGRY, this article shows how ignoring the older program is likely to underestimate the general equilibrium impact of the employment policy on various relevant socio-economic outcomes. In most cases, ignoring SGRY underestimates NREGA’s impact by 30–40 percent.
format Working Paper
author Bahal, Girish
author_facet Bahal, Girish
author_sort Bahal, Girish
title A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies
title_short A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies
title_full A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies
title_fullStr A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies
title_full_unstemmed A Tale of Two Programs : Assessing Treatment and Control in NREGA Studies
title_sort tale of two programs : assessing treatment and control in nrega studies
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/123811635968088739/A-Tale-of-Two-Programs-Assessing-Treatment-and-Control-in-NREGA-Studies
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36486
_version_ 1764485348220469248

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