Begging and street vending are a common sight in many cities in developing countries. Yet we hardly have any existing literature examining the economic behavior and interactions in these activities. There is hardly any existing micro evidence on their financial and demographic backgrounds of those panhandlers and street vendors. At the first stage, I intend to collect comprehensive evidence on these areas through a quantitative survey with street vendors and panhandlers, including children, in New Delhi, India. To get a holistic picture of their lives, the survey collects labor market related outcomes along with questions that try to understand their selling practices and motivations that determine their engagement in these activities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I also seek to understand whether interactions in this setting have downstream consequences on the relative earnings of adults and children, and thereby may impact child labor in the longer run.
Researcher: Ronak Jain