mechanism that public works schemes raise agricultural wages in the private labor market, thereby incentivizing big landlords to … higher demand for public jobs, I show that more equal areas have higher agricultural wages in the private labor sector. This …

(NREGA) can challenge the hegemony of the landed elite as major employers in the Indian countryside and raise market wages … agriculture, the program is highly successful in raising wages and generating more public employment in districts that were not … evident when I examine the impact of NREGA on rural wages. I find that in districts where land is concentrated in the hands of …