Poverty, Undernutrition and Vulnerability in Rural India: Public Works versus Food Subsidy

This paper analyses the effects of access to Rural Public Works (RPW) and the Public Distribution System (PDS), a public food subsidy programme, on consumption poverty, vulnerability and undernutrition in India drawing, on the large household datasets constructed with National Sample Survey (NSS) data, 50th round in 1993-1994 and 61st round in 2004-2005. The treatment effects model and propensity score matching (PSM) model are used to take account of the sample selection bias in evaluating the effects of RPW or PDS on poverty.