Scientific Publication

The impact of India's rural employment guarantee on demand for agricultural technology

author(s) Bhargava, Anil K
from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
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themes
regions
  • Southern Asia
  • Asia
  • World
citation

Bhargava, Anil K, 'The impact of India's rural employment guarantee on demand for agricultural technology', International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, D.C., 2014

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Abstract

This paper investigates whether this increase in the opportunity cost of agricultural labor incentivizes farm owners to adopt labor-saving agricultural technology. Using a regression discontinuity design and new Indian agricultural census data, this paper finds that NREGA causes a shift of roughly 20 percentage points away from labor-intensive technologies toward labor-saving ones, particularly for small farmers and low-powered technologies.

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