Social Welfare Portability and Migration: Evidence from India鈥檚 Public Distribution System

Baseler, Travis; Narayan, Ambar; Ng, Odyssia; Sinha Roy, Sutirtha

doi:10.1257/pol.20240183

Abstract

This paper studies a new program designed to make food entitlements portable throughout India. We first characterize the state of food entitlement portability using mystery shoppers and surveys of migrants and distributors. We then inform households about the program, and barriers to using it, through a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Treatment impacts on beliefs about entitlement portability were initially positive, but later turned negative following a general rise in beliefs. These patterns are consistent with our experiment increasing awareness of the program but decreasing trust in its implementation. Migration to cities decreased, suggesting that access to food affects migrants鈥� destination choices.

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