Can e-governance reduce capture of public programmes? Experimental evidence from India’s Employment Guarantee Scheme

ii Abbreviations and acronyms vi 1. Context 1 1.1 The National Rural Employment Guarantee in Bihar 1 1.2 Lack of demand for work 1 1.3 Lack of administrative capacity 2 1.4 Transparency and corruption 3 1.5 Interventions to reduce corruption 4 2. Theory of change and intervention 5 2.1 Theory of change 5 3. Implementation 9 3.1 Preparation phase: July–August 2012 9 3.2 First phase: September–December 2012 10 3.3 Second phase: January–March 2013 11 4. Results 13 4.1 Data 13 4.2 Evaluation methodology 14 4.3 MGNREGS employment provision in the sample 14 4.4 Effect of the intervention on MGNREGS spending 15 4.5 Effect of the intervention on employment 16 4.6 Effect of the intervention on labor payments 16 4.7 Effect of the intervention on leakages 18 4.8 Effect of the intervention on household consumption 19 4.9 Effect of the intervention on assets of mukhiyas 19 4.10 Effect of the intervention on assets of MGNREGS officials 19 4.11 Effect of the intervention on financial management 20 5. Summary and policy recommendations 20 5.1 Summary 21 5.2 Policy recommendations 21 References 23 Appendix A: Figures 24 Appendix B: Tables 30 Appendix C: Intervention 37 Appendix D: Data 39 Appendix E: Sample design 49 Appendix F: Survey instruments (available online only) 50