Chapter 1 | Page 38 dimension to economics’.114 Despite these overlaps between human rights and economics, there is minimal interaction between the two disciplines. It is important to understand, for example, whether the current problems in economic policy are the outcomes of doing the wrong economics rightly or doing the right economics wrongly.115 Therefore, the inter-relationship between human rights and economics cannot be ignored if we are to develop and implement an effective system of human rights protection. Balakrishnan, Elson and Patel argue that: Human rights have significant economic implications, since promoting, protecting and fulfilling them require resources and involve costs. In turn, economic policies have significant impacts on human rights; they shape the nature of the threats to the economic and social rights of different groups of people, and can both harm and assist the realization of human rights.116 This relationship is especially relevant with regard to ESC rights, given the essential economic policy characteristics of ESC rights implementation. For example, the right to work and the right to an adequate standard of living (including the right to housing, food, and water) and the right to education, health and welfare are closely intertwined with national economic policy. Many of these rights and what they imply in practice could be better understood from the perspective of economics and public policy practices. Economics and public policy decisions also drive the State’s attitude towards public sector resources and how they are used, which effectively impacts the individual’s ability to enjoy ESC rights. In recent years, especially since the global financial and economic crises of 2007-2008, there has been an increase in the number of governments adopting policies of reducing public expenditure by cutting or capping previously significant expenditures such as public sector wages and welfare subsidies.117 These austerity measures have a major 114 Ibid., 1. 115 Ibid., 3. 116 Balakrishnan, Elson and Patel, above n 91, 28. 117 See for example, Jim Brumby and Marijn Verhoeven, 'Public Expenditure after the Global Financial Crisis' in Otaviano Canuto and Marcelo Giugale (eds), The Day After Tomorrow: A Handbook on the Future of Economic Policy in the Developing World (The World Bank, Washington D.C., 2010) 193.