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As summarized by Alt and Shepsle in the editors' introduction to "Perspectives in Positive Political Economy", political economy is the study of rational decisions in a context of political and economic institutions. It deals with two characteristic questions: How do observed differences among institutions affect political and economic outcomes in various social, economic, and political systems; and how are institutions themselves affected by individual, and collective beliefs, preferences, and strategies?. Political economy is therefore promising for its natural relevance to the problems of government economic policy making, regulation of industry, legislative structure and the development or conversion of economic and political systems. Aware of this, it was the main objective of this conference to make a bridge between the work done in social services and the political economy behind their delivery trying to embrace work on economic approaches to collective decision making, in the tradition of social choice and public choice. With this objective in mind the Group of Analysis for Development (GRADE) was invited by the LACEA Political Economy Network and the Poverty and Inequality Network to organize the Joint Meeting of the LACEA/IDB/WB Network on Inequality and Poverty and Political Economy Group, from the 21st to 23rd of June, 2001 in Lima, Peru. The main topic of the conference was the Political Economy of the Delivery of Social Services. The papers considered addressed the political economy problems related to decentralization, education, access to infrastructure, social assistance, including the wider process of institutional reforms and institutional design. |