If, as is contended in the social security literature, a policy for the poor is a poor policy, a final judgment of poverty programs crucially depends on the effects such programs may have on the behaviour of different actors. Assuming that these are to a significant extent determined by concerns...

In the New Institutional Economics, an argument has been made to found theoretical models on "human nature as we know it”. Though this argument has served to defend the assumption of opportunism, it can also be used to explore other models of man. In particular, we scrutinise what kind of...