PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shah, Manisha
AU  - Steinberg, Bryce Millett
TI  - Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.56.2.1117-9201R2
DP  - 2019 Oct 14
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1117-9201R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/10/07/jhr.56.2.1117-9201R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/10/07/jhr.56.2.1117-9201R2.full
AB  - We examine the impact of an increase in the demand for low-skill labor caused by a large public works program (NREGS) on schooling outcomes. Exploiting the staged rollout of the program for causal identification, we show exposure to workfare decreases enrollment by 1–3.5 percentage points and increases labor by 4 percentage points amongst adolescents, with girls primarily substituting into unpaid domestic work. We also find evidence that children exposed to the program in utero to age 4 benefit later in life. We conclude that the opportunity cost of schooling is an important determinant of educational investment.