Social Security Development and the Colonial Legacy

In recent times, social security has been one of the most popular instruments for promoting human development worldwide. Nearly all countries of the world have implemented some kind of social security legislation. While the emergence of social security in the OECD-world has been extensively analyzed, we know very little about the origins of social security beyond the OECD-world. By analyzing 91 Spanish, French and British colonies and former colonies from 1820 until the present time, this paper demonstrates that the colonial heritage is a crucial factor in explaining the adoption and form of social security programs in countries outside OECD-world.