Income and Influence Social Policy in Emerging Market Economies

This book seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate over the role of social policy in emerging markets and postcommunist transition economies, with a focus on Latin America, East Asia, and the former Soviet bloc. The authors argue that poverty reduction has not been the major objective of social policy in these countries, or even of the international financial institutions that are important providers of loans and advice to them. Instead, the main purpose of these programs has been to help smooth the consumption patterns of those formal soctor workers who feared that economic liberalization would reduce their incomes and job prospects.