Do Public Works Programs Have Sustained Impacts? A Review of Experimental Studies from LMICs
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2024
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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have introduced public works programs that offer temporary cash-for-work opportunities to poor individuals. We review experimental evidence on the impacts of public works programs on participants over the short and medium run, providing new insights on whether they have sustained impacts. Our findings show that public works mainly increase employment and earnings during the program. Short-term positive effects tend to fade in the medium run, except in a few cases in which large impacts on savings or investments in self-employment activities are also observed. We find evidence of improvements in psychological well-being and women's empowerment in some cases, but not systematically, and with limitations in measurement. In some contexts, public works programs also improve market wages, affecting both participants and non-participants. We conclude by outlining directions for future research.</jats:p>
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Bagga, Aanchal, Marcus Holmlund, Nausheen Khan, Subha Mani, Eric Mvukiyehe and Patrick Premand (2024). Do Public Works Programs Have Sustained Impacts? A Review of Experimental Studies from LMICs. The World Bank Research Observer. 10.1093/wbro/lkae011 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/31838.
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Eric Ndahayo Mvukiyehe
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Duke University (tenure track.) My academic and policy research cut across many topics and contexts, including on: (i) reducing poverty and promoting socioeconomic welfare and psychological wellbeing for the poor and at-risk youth; (ii) political economy of conflict, peacebuilding and development in fragile and war-torn countries; (iii) strengthening state capacity in fragile states through reforming the civil service and traditional institutions; and (iv) promoting women’s empowerment through socioeconomic inclusion and political participation. I have also been conducting (v) COVID-19 research, leveraging previous or ongoing research to in investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses as well as households’ welfare and well-being in efforts to help inform policies and strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s deleterious effects.
Prior to joining the Duke Faculty, I was an Economist at the World Bank’s Development Economics Vice-Presidency (DEC), in its Development Impact Evaluation Department (DIME), where I helped establish and led the Evidence for Peace (E4P) program. This is an innovative research program on Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) whose main goal was to provide evidence-based guide to policy action and projects’ mid-course correction, while addressing critical knowledge gaps identified in the World Development Report (WDR) 2014 (see E4P/FCV program blurb here). At its peak, the E4P program a portfolio of over 40 impact evaluation studies, which covers over $2.5 billion of FCV operations in 25 countries and has about $35 million in research funding. I was also the World Bank’s Institutional Representative at the Experiments in Governance and Politics (EGAP), a global research, evaluation, and learning network that promotes rigorous knowledge accumulation, innovation, and evidence-based policy in various governance and accountability domains.
Prior to joining DEC/DIME, I worked in the Word Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL), where I provided technical assistance in the design and implementation of gender programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. I was also a Democracy Fellow with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where I developed rigorous impact evaluations and analytical work of US Government programs in the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) sector. Finally, prior to joining the World Bank, I consulted for the United Nations (UN) Secretariat, where I led impact evaluations of UN peacekeeping operations in Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia using local population surveys, as part of a broader evaluation of these operations’ performance by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).
I hold a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University (2014), with focus on international security/relations, political economy, and comparative politics. I have taught, given talks and written extensively about the aforementioned research areas for many years and my research has been published in the Journal of Development Economics (JDE); the Review of Economics and Statistics (REStat); the BMJ Global Health; the Quarterly Journal of Political Science (QJPS); the World Politics (WP); the World Development (WD); the Journal of Conflict Resolution (JCR); the Journal of Peace Research (JPR); and the Comparative Political Studies (CPS), among other outlets.
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