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Public Works as an Anti‐Poverty Program: An Overview of Cross‐Country Experience
Author(s) -
Subbarao K.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1244171
Subject(s) - poverty , principal (computer security) , citation , library science , sociology , political science , computer science , law , operating system
Public works programs have been important counter-cyclical interventions in developed and developing countries. These programs were used in some Western countries during the depression years of the 1930s. More recently, several developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have adopted such programs in some form or another. In terms of person days of employment created, the programs in Bangladesh and India are perhaps the largest in the world. Employment in India's nationwide program (known as Jawahar Rojgar Yojna, or JRY) reached a billion workdays by 1995. I begin here with a brief discussion of the role of public works as a safety net and then present the available cross-country experience on various aspects of the program. The conclusions are then summarized.