Resource information
In 1989, Albania's rigid political
and socioeconomic structure shattered beyond repair.
Turbulence soon invaded every domain of life. As the state
imploded, so did the state-run economy. This review explores
ongoing consequences of this difficult transformation that
took place since 1989 and of policy initiatives to mitigate
or ameliorate its effects. Albania has been much studied;
the review addresses important information gaps. It
establishes, from the representative 2002 Living Standards
Measurement Survey (LSMS), which kinds of families receive
public income transfers and private income flows in what
amounts and from what sources. It estimates the impact that
these public and private income flows have in mitigating
pre-transfer and post-transfer poverty among households. It
does this by type of family and source of income flow, for
all Albanian households and for various subsets of them.
This review analyzes the relative importance of pensions and
social assistance in alleviating poverty among rural
households with aged members. This review also documents and
links data on expenditures under social programs with data
on program beneficiaries for recent years and it identifies
current tradeoffs among the multiple objectives of social
safety net policies, including those relating to coverage,
adequacy, work incentives, equity, and effective government
spending. Finally, it suggests options for future
development of social safety net policies, including ways to
strengthen overall policy linkages and programmatic
coordination among social programs.
