For instance, increased spending on education may help increase schooling levels among poor children, but will not raise future income if broader economic policies fail to generate sufficient employment and if there are no complementary policies that address idiosyncratic determinants of economic vulnerability which keep wage returns to some of the poor low. Nor will social investments raise incomes if the poor cannot accumulate physical and financial capital, or if recurrent economic downturns force periodic rundowns of their limited assets. Social policy alone cannot change the economic environment or elements in the structure of the economy that contribute to poverty and volatile employment and income conditions. In a review of social policy making in developing countries, Grindle (2010, p. 12) notes that China’s current growth spurt is supported “by the ready availability of a literate and healthy labour force” and yielded a longer-term pay-off to early investment in social development.