ABSTRACT
The programs often explicitly propose measures to alleviate social stress subject, of course, to available resources. Because much of the focus of this work is on how to economize on the limited resources available when promoting poverty alleviation goals, the emphasis is on the design of selective measures for the more cost-effective targeting of economically vulnerable groups (see Gupta and Nashashibi, 1990; Chu and Gupta, 1993). The resulting poverty alleviation measures, better defined as social safety net mechanisms, are ‘added on’ to the financial programs insofar as the underlying stabilization and adjustment targets remain unaffected.2
