Stimulating economic growth in the least developed countries: direct cash transfers for the retired via mobile phones

Roy Mersland and Joachim Thøgersen

Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 2013, vol. 16, issue 3, 259-271

Abstract: The result of current aid policies is that only a small percentage of foreign aid reaches the poorest of the poor in the least developed countries. Current trends of urbanisation and self-reliance place elderly people in an increasingly difficult situation. This paper aims to stimulate debate by introducing an alternative mechanism for foreign aid. With the help of an economic model, we demonstrate how direct cash transfers to elderly people can spur economic growth. Targeting all elderly people above a certain age minimises selection costs and removes perverse incentives. The use of new mobile phone technologies reduces transaction costs and makes our proposed modality feasible including in the least developed countries with low functioning governments.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17487870.2013.799905 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jecprf:v:16:y:2013:i:3:p:259-271

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/GPRE20

DOI: 10.1080/17487870.2013.799905

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Policy Reform is currently edited by Dr Judith Clifton

More articles in Journal of Economic Policy Reform from Taylor and Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().