Una revisión de los fundamentos económicos sobre la pobreza

Abstract

This paper reflects on the efficiency of the systems which deal with the problem of poverty throughout the history of economic thought. The analysis covers two fields of study. First, we briefly study how property theory from Scholasticism to the Eighteenth century combines, on the one hand, efficiency with equity and, on the other hand, efficiency with extreme poverty. Second, this paper revises some criticisms of the beneficence systems in two different contexts: the debate in Spain in the Sixteenth century, and the controversy about the English Poor Laws in the Nineteenth century.