This paper examines the effects of India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, currently the world's largest public employment program, on household consumption and poverty rates in rural India. Combining regionally coded data from consumption surveys with information on the...

"Examines a broad range of state and federal programs providing cash or in-kind benefits to low-wage workers, low-income families, and families making the transition from welfare to work to assess the ability of the work support system to lead to self-sufficiency"--Provided by publisher

Efforts to promote work have been the centerpiece of welfare reform over the past ten years. In signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, President Bill Clinton pledged that the sweeping overhaul would "end welfare as we know it" by promoting work,...