The Political Economy of “Targeting” of Social Security Schemes
Stephen Kidd examines the evidence on the political economy of ‘targeting’. By first examining the history behind social security in developed countries, and then looking at contemporary tax-financed social security schemes in both developed and developing countries, Stephen demonstrates how the targeting design of a social security programme can influence both political commitment and the value of transfers. The paper helps in explaining why “programmes for the poor tend to be poor programmes.” Ultimately, the design of social security schemes comes down to ideology. Neoliberals prefer to target the “poor” since, as the World Bank (2014) has pointed out, a key motivation for poverty targeting has been a desire to reduce public spending
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