Browse by title

Policymakers have adopted two main antipoverty approaches in the United States. First, they have emphasized developing human capital, enabling workers to earn higher wages. Second, transfer programmes have provided a safety net for low-income citizens. This chapter advocates an alternative approach: using social insurance programmes to reduce poverty without creating negative incentives. It then looks at programmes focusing on three different age groups: (1) child allowances and paid parental leave, (2) unemployment and disability insurance and (3) old-age pensions. It finds these programmes effective in reducing poverty throughout the developed world, especially in Nordic countries with generous social insurance benefits.

This chapter argues that the unsatisfactory performance and dim future prospects of developing economies demand rethinking the theoretical foundations of development economics by fostering a dialogue and collaboration between structuralist and post-Keynesian economics. This collaboration can be centred on five themes: (i) a methodological approach based on historical trends and measurement; (ii) the characterization of the system of economic relations around the concepts of centre and periphery; (iii) the relation between income distribution, accumulation and economic growth; (iv) the central role of demand and (v) the role of the State.