Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/81259 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2002
Series/Report no.: 
IUI Working Paper No. 581
Publisher: 
The Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Developing countries, in particular the least developed ones, probably have more to learn from social policies in Europe during the early 20th century than from the elaborate welfare-state arrangements after World War II. In addition to macro­economic growth and stability, the main ambitions must be to fight human deprivation, including illiteracy, malnutrition, poor access to water and sanitation – and, in some cases, also weak, incompetent and/or corrupt governments. It is also important that informal systems in the fields of transfers and social services are not destroyed when developing countries embark on more formal systems in these fields in the future. The European experience also warns against the creation of social systems that are so generous that disincentives, moral hazard and receding social norms seriously distort the national economy, including the labor market.
Subjects: 
Welfare state
Social policy
Developing economies
JEL: 
H50
I30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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