Unorthodox adjustment and poverty in Peru

Faced with economic stagnation and decline during the 1980s, many developing countries adopted macroeconomic and structural adjustment programs that were recommended and partially financed by the World Bank and the IMF. A few countries, such as Peru, experimented with alternative "unorthodox' (the so-called heterodox) programs. Such alternative approaches did not always succeed. Investigations provide a clearer picture of what happened between 1985-90 in Peru. Households headed by individuals with relatively low levels of education experienced greater declines in consumption level than the better educated. The poor, who have lower education levels, suffered disproportionately because the returns to human capital were more stable at higher levels of education; unemployment rose significantly and became a distinct characteristics of the poor; and the provision of public services, particularly potable water and sewage services, deteriorated across the city, but most severely in the three poorest regions - Conos Este, Norte, and Sur. -from Authors