How dependent are the rural poor on the employment guarantee scheme in India?
分析了印度马哈拉施特拉邦两个村庄1979-89年的数据，发现就业保障计划存在目标错位问题，但长期贫困人口仍严重依赖该计划作为额外收入来源，且其依赖程度随经济条件变化。
An analysis of the ICRISAT data for two villages in the Indian state of Maharashtra points to mistargeting of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS). There was a marked deterioration in it over the period 1979–89, reflected in not just a larger concentration of the more affluent among the EGS participants but also their much larger gains from participating in this scheme. Nevertheless, a large subset of the chronically poor depended heavily on EGS as an additional source of income, with significant welfare gains, during 1979–84. But a large subset — especially of relatively low income participants ‐ also withdrew from EGS when overall economic conditions improved. Besides, EGS earnings varied consistently with economic conditions. Although the present analysis raises some concerns about the mistargeting of EGS and, in this context, about the design and implementation of this scheme, the presumption that such public support makes the poor perpetually dependent on it seems somewhat exaggerated, if not mistaken.