Working Paper: NBER ID: w22499
Authors: Satadru Das; Naci Mocan
Abstract: India started the implementation of a rural public works program in 2006, covering all districts of the country within three years. The program quarantees 100 days of employment per year at minimum wage to each rural household on demand, with the goal of reducing joblessness and poverty. We exploit the design and implementation of this program to investigate its employment impact on various types of crimes, ranging from burglary to kidnapping to riots. We show that the program acts as an insurance scheme because an increase in rainfall, which is negatively correlated with agricultural production, lowers the demand for jobs under the program. Controlling for rainfall, we find that employment generated by the program has a negative impact on both property and violent crime. Although crime elasticities with respect to employment are small, this finding represents another dimension of the social benefit generated by the program.
Keywords: Public Works; Crime; Employment; MGNREGA; India
JEL Codes: H0; I3; J08; J43; K42
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| rainfall (Q54) | MGNREGA employment (J68) |
| poverty (I32) | crime rates (K42) |
| rainfall (Q54) | crime rates (K42) |
| MGNREGA employment (J68) | crime rates (K42) |
| MGNREGA employment (J68) | poverty (I32) |
| MGNREGA employment (J68) | joblessness (J64) |