types of programs was done randomly, they were quite comparable. In our conversations with the director of the SERP program as well as with the SERP facilitators, we found that they were keen to work on their own, but did not always speak the local language fluently.<sup>23</sup> As a result, they were generally given strictly defined and narrow tasks to perform in a specific amount of time, with clear deliverables.

# A Comparison of Facilitators’ Characteristics

We consistently find a distinct difference between the observable characteristics of external and internal facilitators. External facilitators were younger and more educated than local facilitators (Table 3, Panel A). They had fewer children, were less likely to own land and were less reliant on agriculture as a source of income (Table 3, Panel A). Our qualitative observations of these facilitators confirmed these patterns. We observed that the facilitators from Andhra Pradesh spoke up to three languages (Hindi, Telugu and English) and talked, freely and unprompted, about their own personal path out of poverty and their professional experiences. They presented themselves as a group of disciplined anti-poverty professionals whose best qualifications were their own personal journeys of transformation. In rural Rajasthan they stood out for their distinctive way of talking and dressing as well as for their confident demeanor. This was not seen in the case of the local facilitators, who appeared to fit in much more easily with the prevailing norms.

In our survey data, however, we do not find an “experience gap”: both external and internal facilitators seemed to have similar number of years of experience (Table 3, Panel A). There were however, significant differences in reported income (Table 3, Panel A). According to official policy, external facilitators were paid Rs. 1,000 per day, and worked for 30 - 45 days at a stretch, earning more than Rs. 30,000 - Rs. 45,000 in a single rotation with the RRLP. They completed 4 rotations in a year, thus earned up to Rs. 180,000 annually (approximately $3,000, using market exchange rates at the time). Internal CRPs on the other hand, were paid Rs. 750 per day and worked for about 90 days in a year, earning approximately Rs. 68,000 (approximately $1,133, using market exchange rates at the time). In other words, internal CRPs earned about a third of the earnings of the external CRPs. In our conversations, SERP management and government officials justified the higher salaries of the external facilitators on the grounds that they had more experience and were leaving their homes and communities to come and work in another state.

To test this assumption, we perform a Mincerian regression of monthly earnings, (i.e., a regression of earnings on education, experience and observable attributes [Table 4]). This specification, widely used by labor economists, allows us to examine whether the income “premium” observed among SERP staff in the descriptive statistics may be driven by their observable professional attributes. In the results in Table 4, we find no evidence that the monthly

> 23 In these instances, they were paired with individuals from within the SERP team who had a stronger grasp of Hindi.

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