United Nations University
World Institute for Development Economic Reseach:
RP2004/44
Peter Burnell:
Foreign
Aid Resurgent: New Spirit or Old Hangover?
(PDF
199KB)
This study is premised on the view that reports circulating in the 1990s, claiming
foreign aid was in terminal crisis, were premature. Aid’s reviving fortunes are explained
in terms both of a growing awareness of the uneven implications of globalization and
the after-effects of the terrorist events of 11 September 2001. However these two
‘drivers’ make uneasy partners. Furthermore, aid for democratization, argued in the
1990s to be an instrument for indirectly addressing socioeconomic weakness and
improving development aid’s effectiveness—making it a positive feature in a bleak
decade—is increasingly seen as problematic. For now, aid’s resurgence should target
pro-poor development rather than democratic reform, although the likelihood is that old
fashioned determinants of realpolitik will continue to get in the way.
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RP2005/54
Mark McGillivray, Simon Feeny, Niels Hermes and Robert Lensink:
It
Works; It Doesn’t; It Can, But That Depends…: 50 Years of Controversy over
the Macroeconomic Impact of Development Aid
(PDF
254KB)
This paper surveys 50 years of empirical research on the macroeconomic impact of aid,
looking mainly at studies examining the link between aid and growth. It argues that
studies dating until the late 1990s produced either contradictory or inconclusive results.
Aid either worked, or it didn’t, according to this research. The paper then highlights a
major shift in the literature that coincided with the release of the World Bank’s
Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why. Practically all research published
since that report agrees with its general finding that aid works, to the extent that in its
absence growth would be lower. One controversy may therefore have been settled. Yet,
we show, the report has set-off an intense debate over the context in which aid works.
That debate centres on whether the effectiveness of these inflows depends on the policy
regime of recipient countries. Some possible avenues through which the heat might be
taken out of this debate are considered.
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DP2003/03
Jeffery I. Round and Matthew Odedokun:
Aid
Effort and its Determinants
(PDF 238KB)
The paper empirically explores the factors that could have accounted for the generally
declining aid effort (defined as the generosity ratio, or the share of GDP given as aid) of
bilateral donors over the last three decades. Annual panel data over 1970-2000 period
for the 22 DAC members are used in a series of regressions. The findings suggest the
existence of progressivity of aid in relation to donor income. There is also evidence of
the economies of scale, in the sense that the share of aid in income decreases with
growth in the size of donor country population. Domestic pro-poor tendency also
appears to enhance donor generosity, and a positive ‘peer pressure’ effect is also
observed. In addition, the extent of military adventurism of the donor is observed to
have enhanced aid effort, just as also the size of government. But no discernible effect is
detected for fiscal balance. On the political front, a greater number of checks and
balances in the political system as well as the existence of polarization and
fractionalization within the government are found to have enhanced aid effort while
fractionalization within the opposition has the opposite effect. On the other hand, no
discernible and consistent effect of ideological orientation of government is detected.
Finally, the movement in the aid effort over time is found to differ between the G7 and
non-G7 donors.
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DP2003/05
Simon Feeny: What
Determines Foreign Aid to Papua New Guinea? An Inter-temporal Model of Aid
Allocation (PDF 283KB)
DP2003/09
Stefan Dercon and Pramila Krishnan:
Food
Aid and Informal Insurance
(PDF 345KB)
Households in developing countries use a variety of informal mechanisms to cope with
risk, including mutual support and risk-sharing. These mechanisms cannot avoid that
they remain vulnerable to shocks. Public programs in the form of food aid distribution
and food-for-work programs are meant to protect vulnerable households from
consumption and nutrition downturns by providing a safety net. In this paper we look
into the extent to which food aid helps to smooth consumption by reducing the impact
of negative shocks, taking into account informal risk-sharing arrangements. Using panel
data from Ethiopia, we find that despite relatively poor targeting of the food aid, the
programs contribute to better consumption outcomes, largely via intra-village risk
sharing.
DP2003/11
George Mavrotas and Bazoumana Ouattara:
The
Composition of Aid and the Fiscal Sector in an Aid-Recipient Economy: A Model
(PDF 184KB)
DP2003/15
George Mavrotas and Bazoumana Ouattara: Aid
Disaggregation, Endogenous Aid and the Public Sector in Aid-Recipient Economies:
Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire (PDF 252KB)
DP2003/17
Tony Addison, Mark McGillivray and Matthew Odedokun:
Donor
Funding of Multilateral Aid Agencies: Determining Factors and Revealed Burden
Sharing
(PDF 247KB)
DP2003/21
Mark McGillivray:
Descriptive
and Prescriptive Analyses of Aid Allocation: Approaches, Issues and Consequences
(PDF 264KB)
DP2003/26
Matthew Odedokun:
Analysis
of Deviations and Delays in Aid Disbursements
(PDF
280KB)
DP2003/33
Mark McGillivray and Bazoumana Ouattara: Aid,
Debt Burden and Government Fiscal Behaviour: A New Model Applied to Côte
d’Ivoire (PDF 191KB)
DP2003/49
Mark McGillivray:
Modelling
Aid Allocation: Issues, Approaches and Results
(PDF
240KB)
DP2003/71
Mark McGillivray:
Aid
Effectiveness and Selectivity: Integrating Multiple Objectives into Aid
Allocations
(PDF 165KB)
DP2003/82 John
Micklewright and Anna Wright:
Private
Donations for International Development
(PDF
229KB)
DP2003/85 George Mavrotas:
Which
Types of Aid Have the Most Impact?
(PDF
182KB)
DP2005/06
David Fielding and George Mavrotas:
The
Volatility of Aid
(PDF 173KB)
RP2005/61
Robert Osei, Oliver Morrissey, and Tim Lloyd: The
Fiscal Effects of Aid in Ghana (PDF 191KB)
RP2005/60
Karuna Gomanee, Sourafel Girma, and Oliver Morrissey:
Aid
and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Accounting for Transmission Mechanisms
(PDF 137KB)
RP2005/58
Peter Quartey: Innovative
Ways of Making Aid Effective in Ghana: Tied Aid versus Direct Budgetary Support
(PDF 105KB)
RP2005/49
J. Andrew Grant: Diamonds,
Foreign Aid, and the Uncertain Prospects for Post-Conflict Reconstruction in
Sierra Leone (PDF 106KB)
DP2006/02
George Mavrotas and Espen Villanger:
Multilateral
Aid Agencies and Strategic Donor Behaviour
(PDF
174KB)
DP2006/01
Mark McGillivray:
Aid
Allocation and Fragile States
(PDF 178KB)
RP2006/62
Marcia E. Greenberg and Elaine Zuckerman:
The
Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The Challenges in Development
Aid
(PDF 126KB)
RP2006/23
David Fielding, Mark McGillivray, and Sebastian Torres:
A
Wider Approach to Aid Effectiveness: Correlated Impacts on Health, Wealth,
Fertility and Education
(PDF 180KB)
RP2006/07
Alessia Isopi and George Mavrotas:
Aid
Allocation and Aid Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis
(PDF 301KB)
RP2006/06
Gil S. Epstein and Ira N. Gang:
Decentralizing
Aid with Interested Parties
(PDF 219KB)
RP2006/05
Jan-Erik Antipin and George Mavrotas:
On
the Empirics of Aid and Growth: A Fresh Look
(PDF
254KB)
RP2006/04
David Roodman:
Aid
Project Proliferation and Absorptive Capacity
(PDF
339KB)
RP2005/54
Mark McGillivray, Simon Feeny, Niels Hermes and Robert Lensink:
It
Works; It Doesn’t; It Can, But That Depends…: 50 Years of Controversy over
the Macroeconomic Impact of Development Aid
(PDF
254KB)
RP2005/09
Tony Addison, George Mavrotas and Mark McGillivray:
Aid,
Debt Relief and New Sources of Finance for Meeting the Millennium Development
Goals
(PDF 129KB)
RP2004/46
Renu Kohli:
The
Transition from Official Aid to Private Capital Flows. Implications for a
Developing Country
(PDF 257KB)
RP2004/45
Anthony Clunies-Ross:
Imminent
Prospects for Additional Finance: What Might Be Done Now or Soon and Under What
Conditions
(PDF 186KB)
RP2005/23
Tony Addison, George Mavrotas, and Mark McGillivray:
Development
Assistance and Development Finance: Evidence and Global Policy Agendas
(PDF 202KB)
RP2005/09
Tony Addison, George Mavrotas and Mark McGillivray:
Aid,
Debt Relief and New Sources of Finance for Meeting the Millennium Development
Goals
(PDF 129KB)
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