American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Social Welfare Portability and Migration: Evidence from India's Public Distribution System
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 135–64)
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 access to food affects migrants' destination choices.Citation
Baseler, Travis, Ambar Narayan, Odyssia Ng, and Sutirtha Sinha Roy. 2025. "Social Welfare Portability and Migration: Evidence from India's Public Distribution System." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 17 (4): 135–64. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20240183Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- H53 National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics