The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 504, 2020

Why Guarantee Employment? Evidence from a Large Indian Public-Works Program – Download PDF
by Zimmermann, Laura

GLO Fellow Laura Zimmermann

Related papers of the author:

• Guns and Butter? Fighting Violence with the Promise of Development, Journal of Development Economics, 124: 120-141, 2017 (with Gaurav Khanna) (Online Appendix)
• Fighting Maoist Violence with Promises: Evidence from India’s Employment Guarantee Scheme, Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 9(1): 30-36, 2014 (with Gaurav Khanna) (PDF Version)
• Public-Works Programs in Developing Countries Have the Potential to Reduce Poverty, IZA World of Labor, May 2014

Author Abstract: Most countries around the world implement some form of a safety net program for poor households. A widespread concern is that such programs crowd out private-sector jobs. But they could also improve workers’ welfare by allowing them to take on more risk, for example through self-employment. This paper analyzes the employment impacts of the world’s largest public-works program using a novel regression-discontinuity design. The analysis exploits detailed institutional information to describe the allocation formula of the program and to construct a benefit calculator that predicts early and late treatment of districts. The results show that there is little evidence of a crowding out of private-sector jobs. Instead, the scheme functions as a safety net after a bad rainfall shock. Male workers also take on more risk by moving into family employment. This self-revealed preference for a different type of job suggests other potential benefits of safety net programs which so far have received little attention in the literature.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

Ends;

Zimmermann is the President of the Global Labor Organization (GLO), which is a partner organization of ISLE, and GLO had advertised for the event. Consequently, a larger number of GLO Fellows were present at the event. ISLE has supported the creation of GLO from the beginning. Zimmermann had been a VV Giri Lecturer of the society and serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics.

GLO Fellow Alakh N. Sharma, Director of the Institute for Human Development (IHD), Editor of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics and Secretary of ISLE, had opened the congress. The local host, Mahendra Dev, Director of IGIDR and Deepak Nayyar, President of ISLE gave welcome addresses. In some of the very unique moments of the event, Ela Bhatt, the legendary Founder of the Indian Self Employed Womens’ Association gave her Inaugural Address and GLO Fellow and Conference President Kaushik Basu, Cornell University and former Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank, his Presidential Address.

On 19 December, Zimmermann presented a research paper about “Economic preferences across generations: Identifying family clusters from a large- scale experiment”. He delivered the Invited Valedictory Address to the congress on 21 December with the title “The Big 21th Century Challenges in the World of Labor”. In the festive final event of the Valedictory Session, Zimmermann‘s address took up the task of focusing the debates of the conference days and to develop a vision of the future challenges human resources will face in the 21th century. Next to him Mahendra Dev, Kaushiv Basu, Deepak Nayyar and Alakh N. Sharma added their insights in this session.

Ends;