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Can Employment Schemes Work? The Case of the Rural Employment Guarantee in India

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Contributions to Economic Theory, Policy, Development and Finance

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Abstract

Jan Kregel’s wide-ranging work has covered many issues of direct and contemporary relevance to developing countries, and is marked by his careful attention to both the broad sweep and the detail of policy interventions. His contributions to the issues of financing development, macroeconomic instabilities generated by financial deregulation, including capital account liberalization and how to alter patterns of development toward diversification to higher value added activities, are all well known. But he has also been an insightful advocate of specific types of demand management policies that can play multiple roles in developing economies. One such strategy is of implementing public works as part of employment guarantees, which can then have positive effects on both the demand side of the labor market and the supply-side of production conditions.

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© 2014 Jayati Ghosh

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Ghosh, J. (2014). Can Employment Schemes Work? The Case of the Rural Employment Guarantee in India. In: Papadimitriou, D.B. (eds) Contributions to Economic Theory, Policy, Development and Finance. Levy Institute Advanced Research in Economic Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137450968_7

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