In his book _Growing Public_ (Cambridge University Press), Peter H. Lindert argues that the welfare state is a “free lunchâ€, i.e. has no negative effect on growth, and he uses Sweden to explain this finding, which he calls the free lunch puzzle. In this comment, I claim that Lindert...

This paper examines the effect on hours worked of the income-based phase-out of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). It discusses earlier literature on the subject. While the effects on labor force participation of EITC have been thoroughly studied, producing a consensus that the program...

In this reply to Paul Trampe’s comment, “The EITC Disincentive: The Effects on Hours Worked from the Phase-Out of the Earned Income Tax Credit,†Econ Journal Watch 4(3): 308-320, I discuss several omissions, errors in interpretation, and problems with his empirical analysis.

In the September issue Dr. Hilary Hoynes replies to my paper “The EITC Disincentive: The Effect on Hours Worked of the Phase-out of the Earned Income Tax Credit.†She criticizes my remarks about a figure in Eissa and Hoynes 2005, my downplaying the income effect and my not including a...

We define a new index for the collective empowerment of populations based on the capability of actors to have relationships and to enter into networks. This index, called “relational capability” (RC), is dynamic in the sense that the weights of its various components vary across time...

This paper discusses the nature and effects of social grants programmes in South Africa against the backdrop of international trends in the reform of social assistance systems. It shows that South Africa has a well-developed social assistance system that significantly reduces extreme poverty, in...

This paper reflects on the current state and likely future of the South African social assistance system, focusing specifically on its fiscal sustainability, its effectiveness as an instrument to combat poverty in a longer-term developmental sense, and its impact on the allocation of resources....

This paper provides an ex ante assessment of the implementation of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in the Philippines, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino. The study investigates the impact of CCT on current poverty, and the impact of this extra money on school attendance under different...

This paper uses sequential stochastic dominance procedures to compare the joint distribution of health and income across space and time. It is the first application of which we are aware of methods to compare multidimensional distributions of income and health using procedures that are robust to...

The retirement decision is under researched in developing and emerging countries, despite the topic's close relation to many development issues such as poverty reduction and social security, and despite the fact that population ageing will increasingly challenge the developing world. This paper...