Armando Barrientos

• Professor Emeritus at The University of Manchester

This volume is a comprehensive reference for conducting political analyses of emerging welfare systems in the Global South. These countries have adopted a development-oriented approach, one distinct from the social policy trajectory observed in industrialized capitalist states. However, the pervasive influence of globalization since the 1990s has s...

This chapter offers an examination of the incorporation effects of social protection in Latin America. The analysis focuses on two intertwined elements: (i) the features of the ‘critical realignments’ shaping the incorporation effects of the emergent institutions; and (ii) the theories that can be brought to bear to explain change. The main finding...

This chapter examines the stratification effects of social protection institutions on employment. The conventional approach, supported by current theories of welfare institutional development, is to assume that the structure of employment shapes social protection institutions. This makes sense when researching the origins of welfare institutions. H...

This chapter presents the structure of the argument in the book. It introduces, develops, and applies a framework capable of explaining the emergence, structure, and dynamics of social protection institutions understood in Latin America. The central argument is that social protection institutions are a mechanism of stratification of wage earners in...

This chapter is concerned with the design, implementation, and outcomes of current social protection institutions in the region. It examines in turn the three core social protection institutions: occupational pensions, individual retirement savings plans, and social assistance. Occupational pensions in Latin America are restricted to selected group...

The chapter studies differences and similarities in social protection institutions across countries in the region with the aim of identifying country groupings or clusters. The methodological approach implemented was borrowed from the literature in social policy regimes. The grouping of countries is based on the causal outcomes of social protection...

This chapter discusses methods appropriate to the study of social protection in Latin America. It reviews and assesses the main methodological approaches employed by researchers in the past. Building on these, it identifies methods appropriate to developing a theoretical perspective capable of explaining the evolution and current configuration of s...

This chapter examines the protection effects of social protection institutions, by focusing on the main outcomes of the core institutions and of tax and transfer systems. The most significant outcome of social protection provision in Latin America is its stratification. Occupational pension schemes and individual retirement plans reach better off s...

Has social assistance expansion contributed to political inclusion in Latin America? The current literature favours a “policy exchange” approach, hypothesising that social assistance is an electoral asset exploited by governing coalitions. The findings from this literature are mixed. The article proposes an alternative approach emphasising politica...

Social investment figures prominently in the recent expansion of social assistance in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is grounded on an understanding that poverty is primarily a consequence of low productive capacity. To be effective, social assistance must be designed to support human development and economic inclusion. Relying on a...

Welfare states around the globe are changing, challenged by the development of knowledge economies. In many countries, policymakers’ main response has been to modernize welfare states by focusing on future-oriented “social investment” policies that focus on creating, mobilizing, and preserving human skills and capabilities. Yet, there is massive va...

This chapter studies whether participation in conditional income transfer programmes in Latin America generates observable political responses and whether these responses indicate improvements in the political inclusion of participants. It adopts a causal mechanism approach to study political responses to transfer receipt, seeking to cast light on...

A growing impact evaluation literature on antipoverty transfer programmes in low- and middle-income countries measures changes in utilitarian terms, at their unit value. The paper argues that valuing antipoverty transfers is more appropriately done within a framework of prioritarian social welfare functions, as the very presence of these programmes...

This paper examines inequalities in income security in later age. Three dimensions of inequality are considered: (i) inequalities in access to income support across countries and types of schemes; (ii) inequalities in the level of support within countries; and (iii) trends in gender inequality. Scheme stratification reinforces inequalities across s...

Esping-Andersen (1990) identified three core ‘types’ of welfare regime: liberal, conservative and social democratic. Liberal welfare regimes privilege market solutions to social problems. The canonical Liberal welfare regime is characterised by a mix of residual social assistance, moderate social insurance and citizenship-based transfers. In the mi...

The paper considers the role of social protection in mitigating the impact of COVID‐19 on livelihoods and in addressing the impact of the economic crisis ahead.

The expansion of social assistance in low‐ and middle‐income countries raises important issues for inclusive growth. Labour is by far the principal asset of low‐income groups. Changes in the quantity, quality, and allocation of labour associated with social assistance will impact on the productive capacity of low‐income groups and therefore on incl...

Some comparative research on the growth of social assistance in low- and middle-income countries attributes this expansion to the influence of transnational actors, particularly multilaterals. This chapter challenges this widely held view, for which a review of available comparative literature fails to find strong support. Addressing this issue is...

The paper reports on an ex-ante evaluation of the nationwide scale up of two pilot cash transfer programmes in Uganda. We use panel data to estimate consumption elasticities of child health status and school enrolment. They provide the main parameters of a micro-simulation model predicting cash transfer effects on human capital accumulation and fee...

The first experiences with conditional cash transfers (CCTs) took place in the mid-1990s in Brazil, at the local level. They were later adopted at the national level in Mexico (in 1997, with the Prospera programme), in Brazil (by 2001, with several CCTs), as well as in other Latin American countries. In 2003, the Bolsa Família programme unified pre...

Introduction There is considerable diversity of population trends across low- and middle-income countries and not all have reached the final stage of demographic transition. Despite this, population ageing is accelerating in almost all countries, particularly in middle-income emerging economies. The speed of demographic change poses significant pol...

This is the first of two volumes arising from the ground-breaking New Dynamics of Ageing Research Programme. While the Programme produced many scientific papers and several project-based books this is the only place where most of the projects are represented in specially commissioned chapters that not only report the key findings of each piece of r...

This chapter discusses the impact of individual ageing on the wellbeing of older people and their households in low-income areas Brazil and South Africa. The research was based on a longitudinal and comparative survey of around 1000 older persons and their households in selected low-income locations in the two countries. A comparison of older peopl...

Alberto Díaz-Cayeros , Federico Estévez , and Beatriz Magaloni , The Political Logic of Poverty Relief: Electoral Strategies and Social Policy in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Figures, tables, abbreviations, bibliography, index, 258 pp.; hardcover $99.99, paperback $29.99. - Volume 60 Issue 1 - Armando Barrientos

This chapter examines how anti-poverty transfer programmes can drive global extreme poverty to zero. Current trends indicate that global poverty is a crucial issue not only in poor countries but also in low- and middle-income countries. Indeed, the majority of people in extreme poverty today live in middle-income countries and are likely to concent...

Introduction Perhaps the most significant change in antipoverty policy in developing countries has been the growth of large-scale programmes providing direct transfers in cash and in kind to families and individuals facing poverty and vulnerability, with the objective of facilitating their escape from poverty. The spread of antipoverty transfer pro...

Economic Growth has been volatile in Pakistan; so is the case with poverty and inequality. It is a matter of great intellectual concern to know why growth has been pro-poor at some occasions of history in some specific regions while anti-poor in other areas. This paper disaggregates Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) at urban–rural sectors of Pa...

This paper examines the factors explaining the sustained fall in poverty experienced in Kazakhstan in the period 2001–2009. It examines the contribution of economic growth and redistribution policies to poverty reduction through an analysis of household survey data. It finds that growth has been strongly pro-poor. Growth was the main driver behind...

The expansion of antipoverty transfers in low- and middle-income countries focuses on poverty reduction but it also raises important questions regarding their contribution to growth and development. The paper considers the role of design and context in programme outcomes. Distinguishing three main programmes types identified, the analysis relies on...

The paper examines heterogeneity in programme outcomes from Bolsa Família, a flagship social assistance programme in Brazil reaching 14 million households. Following a review of existing evidence on mean impacts, the paper develops and estimates the first panel data quantile regression model of the distribution of Bolsa Família outcomes across muni...

Most countries in Latin America have implemented human development conditional income transfer programmes to address intergenerational persistence of poverty. Typically, these programmes provide income transfers to households in poverty, conditional on children attending school and on household members attending health clinics. Evaluations have est...

Agenda 2030 sets out to tackle persistent challenges of ending extreme poverty and hunger, reducing inequality, achieving gender equality, educating all children and improving global health, while simultaneously addressing deep-rooted environmental issues, such as water scarcity, biodiversity loss, deforestation, rapid urbanization and a changing c...

What are the main objectives of social protection institutions in developing countries? What should be their scope and reach? What is the source of their legitimacy? Finding appropriate answers to these questions is essential to understanding, and shaping, the emergence of welfare institutions in low- and middle-income countries. Most available ans...

The article estimates the impact of Familias en Acción, a human development conditional cash transfer programme, on adult labour market outcomes in urban areas in Colombia. Relying on a regression discontinuity design and a large panel dataset, the article finds significant, largely positive, but heterogeneous programme effects on labour market out...

Prevalence of high rural poverty with spatial distribution necessitates tracking of growth distribution dynamics across different cropping zones to work out precisely the accrual of growth benefits across different regions and segments of population to frame specific policies for sustained growth and effective poverty reduction in Pakistan. This pa...

Two broad explanations can be offered for the incidence of impact evaluations in antipoverty transfer programmes in developing countries. The first, and arguably dominant, explanation suggests this is a consequence of a shift towards evidence-based development policy. A second explanation emphasises the complementary role of policy competition and...

Gosta Esping-Andersen's (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism has become one of the most cited works in social policy (over 20,600 Google Scholar citations; 20 October 2014). This path-breaking work, with its identification of three distinct forms of welfare capitalism in high income countries, has become the basis for a whole academic indu...

Rapid population ageing and economic transformation in Asia underline the policy challenges associated with ensuring income security in old age. This article examines the potential role of social pensions in securing old-age income security in Asia. It assesses the main policy trade-offs associated with adopting alternative social pension designs,...

The chapter argues that Brazil is undergoing a paradigmatic shift in social protection policy, with important implications for child poverty. This shift is characterised by a move away from the Bismarckian approach which dominated thinking and practice in the twentieth century and towards citizenship based programmes represented by the emergence of...

The paper examines social transfers and their influence on the labour supply of women in Kyrgyzstan. Social transfers in cash and in kind in place in Kyrgyzstan absorbed 5.7% of GDP in 2012. They include subsidies to social insurance pensioners, transfers to population groups considered vulnerable or deserving, and transfers to families with childr...

It is now widely accepted that politics plays a significant role in shaping the possibilities for inclusive development. However, the specific ways in which this happens across different types and forms of development, and in different contexts, remains poorly understood. This collection provides the state of the art review regarding what is curren...

This chapter examines older people’s experiences of participation and social connectivity across a range of geographical and social locations within the UK and in low and middle income countries in order to test conceptualisations of older people’s participation and social connectivity against experience, and to begin to trace out the individual, l...

This unique book represents the first multi-disciplinary examination of ageing, from basic cell biology to social participation in later life, drawing on the pioneering New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, the UK’s largest research programme in ageing.

Most low and middle-income countries have implemented programmes providing transfers to families in poverty, often with a focus on children. The paper examines the potential effects of social transfers in these countries on child protection outcomes: the reduction of violence, exploitation and abuse of children, family separation and improved birth...

This article assesses the methodological contribution of Esping-Andersen's Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism to welfare regime analysis. It revisits the methods deployed in the Three Worlds and assesses their influence on the practice of welfare regime researchers. It finds that welfare regime researchers have embraced the methods presented in the...

Since the turn of the century, social protection has emerged as one of the fastest growing areas of development policy and practice. Large-scale social assistance programs in middle-income developing countries providing direct transfers make an important contribution to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability, and to knowledge on poverty and its...

Human development conditional transfer programmes have been adopted by a majority of countries in Latin America to address the intergenerational persistence of poverty. Typically, programmes provide regular and reliable transfers in cash to households in poverty, with transfers conditional on children attending school and on household members atten...

The rapid spread of large-scale and innovative social transfers in the developing world has made a key contribution to the significant reduction in global poverty over the last decade. Explaining how flagship anti-poverty programmes emerged, this book provides the first comprehensive account of the global growth of social assistance transfers in de...

Social protection programs, especially cash transfer programs, have spread across low- and middle-income countries since the beginning of the millennium, and are increasingly part of national development strategies to assist the poor and particularly the poorest. This chapter lays out a wide range of debates about the specific goals, targets, and c...

The paper explores theoretically and empirically Brazil’s tax revenue from a political and political economy perspective. The absence of ‘big bang’ reforms to the tax code and tax administration suggests that policy models are less directly relevant to explaining the rise in the tax/GDP ratio. The paper makes the argument that public consent to the...

It has been suggested that Brazil’s unexpected successes in the last two decades are the outcome of a new model of development, with strong inclusive growth at its core. The paper reviews the main findings of the IRIBA research programme examining the contribution of macroeconomic stability and financial reform, agricultural exports and productivit...

The paper examines the growth of antipoverty transfers in Brazil and their role in securing inclusive growth. Since the turn of the century, Brazil has managed to combine improvement in its growth performance, by the standards of recent decades, with substantial, and arguably unprecedented, reductions in poverty and inequality. There is considerabl...

The notion of citizenship has universalistic claims, but in practice citizenship goes along with exclusions. Households in poverty are a test case. Social assistance for those in poverty is a rather unlikely source of citizenship because it blends inclusion and exclusion, decommodification and commodification. But we argue that the development of s...

The rapid spread of large-scale and innovative social transfers in the developing world has made a key contribution to the significant reduction in global poverty over the last decade. Explaining how flagship anti-poverty programmes emerged, this book provides the first comprehensive account of the global growth of social assistance transfers in de...

The rise of social assistance in Brazil has been remarkable. The 1988 Constitution signalled a renewed ‘social contract’ leading to citizenship-based social assistance providing guaranteed income to older and disabled people in poverty. Municipal activism in the 1990s extended the provision of direct transfers to all households in poverty through B...

EvelyneHuber and John D.Stephens (2012), Democracy and the Left: Social Policy and Inequality in Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. £18, pp. 342, pbk - Volume 42 Issue 3 - ARMANDO BARRIENTOS

The paper examines labour market outcome effects from participation in Familias en Acción in urban areas, a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia. There is considerable interest in the potential impact of antipoverty transfers on labour market outcomes in developing countries. The available literature finds at best very marginal effects,...

The rapid expansion of social protection in the South provides a rich diversity of experiences and lessons on how best to reduce poverty and ultimately eradicate it. Knowledge on how best to ‘grow’ social assistance, understood as long-term institutions responsible for reducing and preventing poverty, is at a premium. This article examines the expa...

This paper examines the main factors behind the strong decline in poverty experienced in Kazakhstan. Specifically, it examines the contribution of growth and redistribution to household consumption and to poverty indicators in Kazakhstan for the period 2001-2009. The analysis relies on estimates of pro-poor growth indices using cross-sections of ho...

An emerging literature considers the linkages between vulnerability and poverty.2 This literature defines vulnerability as ‘vulnerability to poverty’, the likelihood that individuals, households, or communities will be in poverty in the future. It involves a prospective or ‘ex ante’ assessment of poverty, based on current or past information. This...

Using a panel data set of older people and their households in Brazil and South Africa, the article provides estimates of changes in the poverty status transitions of older people and their ouseholds over time, assessing the extent to which some panel households managed to escape from poverty, while others fell into poverty, and others remained per...

This paper draws on two linked studies of social policy and wellbeing in later life. The studies make comparisons between distinct groups of older people at the national and sub-national levels, as well as over time. The paper reflects on some of the main challenges for operationalising this complex design, as well as for interpreting findings and...

The paper applies a multidimensional and comparative approach to the assessment of wellbeing and deprivation among a panel of older people in Brazil and South Africa. It develops and justifies a counting approach to rank order wellbeing and deprivation distributions. An application of this approach generates substantive findings on the dynamics of...

With social exclusion debates originating in western industrialised nations, there have been few attempts, to date, to extend the exclusion lens to the situation of older people in developing nations. In this chapter, Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, Armando Barrientos and Julia Mase contribute to emerging debates about exclusion in non-western nations by exa...

Introduction Development studies offers a specific set of perspectives on poverty, deprivation and welfare, which take particular account of conditions of generalised scarcity, limited access to salaried labour and weak formal sector institutions (Gough and Wood, 2004). While a great deal of the literature about development focuses on resources and...

Rapid population ageing and economic transformation in Asia raise the policy challenge of ensuring income security in old age. There is growing interest among policymakers in the potential role of noncontributory transfers as an instrument to address a variety of policy challenges, including old age poverty and vulnerability, rapid population agein...