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Foreign Aid (foreign + aid)
Selected AbstractsNeither a Carrot Nor a Stick: American Foreign Aid and Economic Policymaking in Spain during the 1950s*DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, Issue 3 2006Oscar Calvo-gonzalez First page of article [source] The Strategic Substitution of United States Foreign AidFOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2010Christopher J. Fariss I present a foreign policy decision-making theory that accounts for why US food aid is used strategically when other more powerful economic aid tools are at the disposal of policymakers. I focus my analysis on US food aid because this aid program provides an excellent case with which to test for the existence of foreign policy substitution. Substitution is an important assumption of many foreign policy theories yet proves to be an allusive empirical phenomenon to observe. Central to this analysis is the identification of legal mechanisms such as the ,,needy people" provision in the US foreign aid legislation that legally restrict certain types of aid; this mechanism, however, does allow for the allocation of certain types of foreign aid, such as food aid, to human rights abusing regimes. Thus, I test if food aid is used as a substitute for human rights abusing states while methodologically accounting for other aid options. The empirical results, estimated with a multinomial logit and Heckman model, demonstrate that countries with high levels of human rights abuse are (i) more likely to receive food aid and (ii) receive greater amounts of food aid even when controlling for other economic aid, the conditioning effect of strategic interests and humanitarian need over the period 1990,2004. [source] Ideas and Change in U.S. Foreign Aid: Inventing the Millennium Challenge CorporationFOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2008Steven W. Hook Recent scholarship on foreign policy change focuses on the role of ideas in altering policies and related governing institutions. While a welcome antidote to the previous preoccupation with static analysis, this research has yet to provide adequate understanding of whether and how ideas produce change in specific instances. This study seeks to narrow this gap by examining a recent program change in U.S. foreign aid policy: the creation in 2004 of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent agency designed to reward the world's most impoverished countries that had previously undertaken neoliberal economic reforms and democratic political reforms. The study identifies a convergence of widely shared principled and causal beliefs which, mediated through U.S. domestic structures, produced the most significant change in U.S. aid strategy and structures in nearly half a century. In melding societal theories that emphasize the role of transnational norm diffusion with theories of domestic politics, the study answers the call for multilevel explanations of foreign policy change. And by applying constructivist notions of ideas and discursive framing with rationalist conceptions of power and interests, the study further responds to the need for theoretical synthesis in the study of foreign policy. [source] A Fragile Balance: Re-Examining the History of Foreign Aid, Security, and Diplomacy , By Louis A. Picard and Terry F. BussGOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2010KIM MOLONEY First page of article [source] The Political Economy of Shock TherapyJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 1 2002John Marangos The collapse of the centrally administered economies gave rise to a transition process towards economic systems based on market relations. Nevertheless, the transition process is not restricted to the economic field. The political and ideological aspects of the transformation are fundamental. As such an analysis of the shock therapy model requires the exposition of what I define the primary elements of the shock therapy model which are: 1) The body of economic analysis used by the shock therapy model. 2) What structure of society the shock therapy model desires to achieve? 3) The speed of the reforms. 4) The political structure consistent with the model. 5) The consistent ideological structure. After the identification of the primary elements of the shock therapy model the next'step'is to identify secondary elements, the desired changes with respect to: 1) 'Price liberalisation,stabilisation. 2) Privatisation. 3) Institutional structure. 4) 'Monetary policy. 5) Fiscal policy. 6) International trade and Foreign Aid. 7) 'Social policy. The analytical framework developed makes possible to understand the shock therapy model from a new and more enlightening perspective. We are better able to comprehend the complexities involved and the disagreements about the reform process. [source] How Foreign Aid Can Foster Democratization in Authoritarian RegimesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009Joseph Wright Donors in recent years have made some foreign aid conditional on progress toward democracy. This study investigates whether and how such conditionality works in practice. The promise of higher aid if the country democratizes only provides an incentive for democratization for political leaders who expect to remain in office after democratization occurs. I show that dictators with large distributional coalitions, who have a good chance of winning fair elections, tend to respond to aid by democratizing. In contrast, aid helps dictators with the smallest distributional coalitions hang on to power. I present a model that shows a dictator's decision calculus, given different a priori support coalitions and varying degrees of aid conditionality, and test the model implications with data from 190 authoritarian regimes in 101 countries from 1960 to 2002. [source] On The Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 496 2004Carl-Johan Dalgaard The present paper re-examines the effectiveness of foreign aid theoretically and empirically. Using a standard OLG model we show that aid inflows will in general affect long-run productivity. The size and direction of the impact may depend on policies, ,deep' structural characteristics and the size of the inflow. The empirical analysis investigates these possibilities. Overall we find that aid has been effective in spurring growth, but the magnitude of the effect depends on climate-related circumstances. Finally, we argue that the Collier-Dollar allocation rule should be seriously reconsidered by donor agencies if aid effectiveness is related to climate. [source] A Survey of the Theoretical Economic Literature on Foreign AidASIAN-PACIFIC ECONOMIC LITERATURE, Issue 1 2006Elisabeth Paul This paper surveys the theoretical economic literature on foreign aid,in particular, the aid donor,recipient relationship. Economic theory, especially new institutional economics, can be very helpful in understanding foreign aid relationships,especially the incentive problems involved,and in designing institutions to improve aid effectiveness. In particular, it helps in understanding the chain of principal,agent relations inherent in the aid delivery system and the resulting potential for agency problems. The survey shows that economic theory can improve the design of cooperation modalities by aligning the incentives of donors and recipients for poverty reduction, but that, in order to address the problems, policy analysis must take into account the constraints faced by stakeholders in the aid relationship. The aid ,contract' should thus seek to improve the agents' incentives to use aid effectively, given the circumstances of the developing country. [source] Do Crises Induce Reform?ECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 2 2001Simple Empirical Tests of Conventional Wisdom We find evidence for the crisis-induces-reform hypothesis at extreme values of the inflation rate and the black market premium. Episodes of extremely high inflation or black market premiums are followed by periods of better performance than episodes of moderately high inflation or black market premiums. We fail to find similar evidence of the crisis hypothesis when crisis is measured as a high current account deficit, a high budget deficit, or a negative per capita growth rate. The pattern of foreign aid disbursements may help explain the results. Foreign aid is reduced at extreme values of inflation or the black market premium, while it is actually increased for more extreme values of the current account deficit and the budget deficit. [source] Accountability, Participation and Foreign Aid EffectivenessINTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Matthew S. Winters Foreign aid involves a chain of accountability relationships stretching from international donors through national governments and implementing agencies to a set of ultimate end users of the goods and services financed by the aid. In this paper, I review five different accountability relationships that exist in foreign aid projects among donors, governments, implementing agencies and end users. Then I summarize existing empirical evidence demonstrating that foreign aid functions better,both at the macro-level of aid flows and at the micro-level of individual aid projects,when there is more government and implementing agency accountability. Specifying several mechanisms that facilitate accountability, I emphasize that participation is a tool often used to produce accountability within aid projects. However, in terms of donor accountability to aid-receiving countries and the end users in them, recent pushes for increased participation have not resulted in more accountability in the design of aid programs. Ultimately, although enthusiasm for participatory models of aid design and delivery is warranted, participation is not a panacea for all the accountability problems in foreign aid programs. [source] Foreign aid and long-run economic growth: empirical evidence for a panel of developing countriesJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2006Georgios Karras Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between foreign aid and growth in per capita GDP using annual data from the 1960 to 1997 period for a sample of 71 aid-receiving developing economies. The results show that the effect of foreign aid on economic growth is positive, permanent, statistically significant, and sizable: raising foreign aid by $20 per person of the receiving country results in a permanent increase in the growth rate of real GDP per capita by approximately 0.16,per,cent. Using an alternative foreign-aid measure, a permanent increase in aid by 1,per,cent of the receiving economy's GDP permanently raises the per capita growth rate by 0.14 to 0.26,per,cent. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] National Adoption of International Accounting Standards: An Institutional PerspectiveCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2010William Judge ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: Effective corporate governance requires accurate and reliable financial information. Historically, each nation has developed and pursued its own financial standards; however, as financial markets consolidate into a global market, there is a need for a common set of financial standards. As a result, there is a movement towards harmonization of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) throughout the global economy. While there has been considerable research on the effects of IFRS adoption, there has been relatively little systematic study as to the antecedents of IFRS adoption. Consequently, this study seeks to understand why some economies have quickly embraced IFRS standards while others partially adopt IFRS and still others continue to resist. Research Findings/Results: After controlling for market capitalization and GDP growth, we find that foreign aid, import penetration, and level of education achieved within a national economy are all predictive of the degree to which IFRS standards are adopted across 132 developing, transitional and developed economies. Theoretical/Academic Implications: We found that all three forms of isomorphic pressures (i.e., coercive, mimetic, and normative) are predictive of IFRS adoption. Consequently, institutional theory with its emphasis on legitimacy-seeking by social actors was relatively well supported by our data. This suggests that the IFRS adoption process is driven more by social legitimization pressures, than it is by economic logic. Practitioner/Policy Implications: For policy makers, our findings suggest that the institutional pressures within an economy are the key drivers of IFRS adoption. Consequently, policy makers should seek to influence institutional pressures that thwart and/or enhance adoption of IFRS. For executives of multinational firms, our findings provide insights that can help to explain and predict future IFRS adoption within economies where their foreign subsidiaries operate. This ability could be useful for creating competitive advantages for foreign subsidiaries where IFRS adoption was resisted, or avoiding competitive disadvantages for foreign subsidiaries unfamiliar with IFRS standards. [source] Corporate Governance in South Africa: a bellwether for the continent?CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2006Melinda Vaughn The recent onslaught of corporate scandals has compelled the world to acknowledge the profound impact of corporate governance practices on the global economy. Corporate governance is of particular concern in developing economies, where the infusion of international investor capital and foreign aid is essential to economic stability and growth. This paper focuses attention on corporate governance initiatives in South Africa, given its significance as an emerging market, its potential leadership role on the African continent and the country's notable corporate governance reform since the collapse of apartheid in 1994. The evolution of the country's corporate structure and the forces driving corporate governance reform over the past decade will be examined, followed by a review of the most notable reform initiatives in place today. Finally, an assessment of those initiatives will be presented, along with recommendations concerning how South Africa's initiatives can serve as models of enhanced corporate governance standards for the African continent. [source] The Strategic Substitution of United States Foreign AidFOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2010Christopher J. Fariss I present a foreign policy decision-making theory that accounts for why US food aid is used strategically when other more powerful economic aid tools are at the disposal of policymakers. I focus my analysis on US food aid because this aid program provides an excellent case with which to test for the existence of foreign policy substitution. Substitution is an important assumption of many foreign policy theories yet proves to be an allusive empirical phenomenon to observe. Central to this analysis is the identification of legal mechanisms such as the ,,needy people" provision in the US foreign aid legislation that legally restrict certain types of aid; this mechanism, however, does allow for the allocation of certain types of foreign aid, such as food aid, to human rights abusing regimes. Thus, I test if food aid is used as a substitute for human rights abusing states while methodologically accounting for other aid options. The empirical results, estimated with a multinomial logit and Heckman model, demonstrate that countries with high levels of human rights abuse are (i) more likely to receive food aid and (ii) receive greater amounts of food aid even when controlling for other economic aid, the conditioning effect of strategic interests and humanitarian need over the period 1990,2004. [source] Development Section, April 2008GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008Cheryl McEwan EDITORIAL It is a great privilege to serve as Editor for the Development section of Geography Compass. The journal is an exciting new venture in electronic publishing that aims to publish state-of-the-art peer-reviewed surveys of key contemporary issues in geographical scholarship. As the first Editor of this section, it is my responsibility to establish the key aims and innovations for this section of the journal. These include: publishing reviews of scholarship on topics of contemporary relevance that are accessible and useful to researchers, teachers, students and practitioners; developing the range of topics covered across the spectrum of development geography; helping to set agendas in development geography by identifying gaps in existing empirical and conceptual research; commissioning articles from both established and graduate/early career researchers who are working at the frontiers of development geography; and communicating the distinctiveness of Geography Compass. Part of this distinctiveness is in publishing articles that are both of scholarly excellence and accessible to a wide audience. The first volume of Geography Compass was published in 2007, covering a wide range of topics (e.g. migration, children, technology, grassroots women's organizations, civil society, biodiversity, tourism, inequality, agrarian change, participatory development, disability, spirituality) in a number of specific geographical areas (e.g. Africa/southern Africa, Caribbean, China, Peru). Forthcoming in 2008/2009 are articles on the Gambia, Latin America, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and South Africa, focusing on topics such as food security, comparative post-socialism, foreign aid and fair trade. Building on these diverse and excellent articles, I plan to communicate the distinctiveness of Development in a number of ways. First, I encourage an ecumenical approach to the notion of ,development geography' and welcome contributions from scholars across a range of social science disciplines whose work would be useful to a geography audience. This is important, not least because both development and geography, in disciplinary terms, are largely European inventions. Many scholars in Latin America, Africa and Asia, for example, do not refer to themselves as either development specialists or geographers but are producing important research in areas of direct relevance to students and researchers of ,development geography'. As the first editions illustrate, I also seek to publish articles that reflect ,development' in its broadest sense, encompassing economic, (geo)political, social, cultural and environmental issues. 2008 will be an interesting year for development, with a number of important issues and events shaping discourse and policy. These include: the Beijing Olympics and increasing focus on China's role in international development; political change in a number of African countries (Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa); the US presidential elections and potential shifts in policy on climate change, trade and security; the impacts of the Bali roadmap on climate change in the current economic context; the increasing number of impoverished people in Asia (notably China and India), sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America (notably Brazil) that even the World Bank has acknowledged; the implications of the increasing role of philanthropic foundations (e.g. the Gates Foundation and those emerging in India and Russia) in international development. I hope to see some of these issues covered in this journal. Second, I am keen to break down the association between ,development' and parts of the world variously categorized as ,Third World', ,Global South' or ,Developing World' by publishing articles that cut across North and South, East and West. The intellectual and disciplinary practices within (Western) geography that separate those researching issues in the South and post-socialist contexts from those researching similar issues in advanced capitalist economies are, it seems, no longer sustainable or sensible. Moreover, while studies of transnational and ethical trade, neoliberalism, household economies and ,commodity chains', for example, incorporate a multitude of case studies from across the world, these tend to be understood through conceptual lenses that almost always have their theoretical antecedents in Western theorization. The notion of ,learning from' debates, policy and practice in other parts of the world is still relatively alien within the discipline. There are thus issues in how we research and teach ethically and responsibly in and about different parts of the world, and in which this journal might make a contribution. Third, and related, part of my responsibility is to ensure that Compass reflects the breadth of debate about ,development' by publishing articles written by a truly international range of scholars. This has proved to be a challenge to date, in part reflecting the newness of the journal and the difficulties posed by English language publication. However, an immediate aim is to publish the work and ideas of scholars based outside of Anglophone contexts, in the Global South and in post-socialist contexts, and to use international referees who are able to provide valuable commentaries on the articles. A longer-term aim is to also further internationalize the Editorial Board. Currently, one-third of the Editorial Board is non-UK and I plan to increase this to at least 50% in future. Fourth, I plan to ensure that the Development section takes full advantage of electronic publication and the opportunities this offers. Thus, while I am keen to retain a word limit in the interest of publishing accessible articles, the lack of constraint regarding page space enables authors to include a wide range of illustrative and other material that is impossible in print journals. I plan to encourage authors to make greater use of visual materials (maps, photographs/photo-essays, video, sound recordings, model simulations and datasets) alongside text as well as more innovative forms of presentation where this might be appropriate. Finally, in the coming year, I intend to work more closely with other Compass section Editors to realize the potential for fostering debate that cuts across subdisciplinary and even disciplinary boundaries. The journal publishes across the full spectrum of the discipline and there is thus scope for publishing articles and/or special issues on development-related topics that might best be approached through dialogue between the natural and social sciences. Such topics might include resources (e.g. water, oil, bio-fuels), hazard and risk (from environmental issues to human and state security), and sustainability and quality of life (planned for 2008). Part of the distinctiveness of Compass is that electronic-only publication ensures that articles are published in relatively quick time , in some cases less than 3 months from initial submission to publication. It thus provides an important outlet for researchers working in fast-changing contexts and for those, such as graduate and early-career researchers, who might require swift publication for career purposes. Of course, as Editor I am reliant on referees both engaging with Manuscript Central and providing reports on articles in a relatively short space of time to fully expedite the process. My experience so far has been generally very positive and I would like to thank the referees for working within the spirit of the journal. Editing a journal is, of course, a collaborative and shared endeavour. The Development Editorial Board has been central to the successful launch of Development by working so generously to highlight topics and potential authors and to review articles; I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tony Bebbington, Reg Cline-Cole, Sara Kindon, Claire Mercer, Giles Mohan, Warwick Murray, Richa Nagar, Rob Potter, Saraswati Raju, Jonathan Rigg, Jenny Robinson and Alison Stenning. The Editors-in-Chief , Mike Bradshaw and Basil Gomez , have provided invaluable advice while adding humour (and colour) to the editorial process. Colleagues at Wiley-Blackwell have provided superb support, in particular, Helen Ashton who is constantly on hand to provide advice and assistance. I look forward to working closely with these people again in the coming year, as well as with the authors and readers who are vital to ensuring that Geography Compass fulfils its remit. [source] The Role of Migrant Remittances in Development: Evidence from Mediterranean CountriesINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2002Nicholas P. Glytsos Given the persistent problems in the balance of trade in LDCs, the limited effect of foreign aid, and the difficulties of borrowing, the often huge amounts of migrant remittances can substitute for the inadequacies of these forms of foreign exchange. As market flows of foreign exchange, remittances have complex positive and negative effects on development. In this paper, I deal with this role of migrant remittances in the theoretical framework of development economics, as related to the importance of foreign exchange as an indispensable factor of growth and structural change in LDCs. Various channels transmitting the impact of remittances on development are investigated based on the experience of countries from both sides of the Mediterranean basin. [source] Rational Migration Policy Should Tolerate Non-zero Illegal Migration Flows: Lessons from Modelling the Market for Illegal MigrationINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2002Horst Entorf The debate on the immigration policies in OECD countries has turned its attention towards illegal migrants. Given that migration flows are determined by immigration laws, the probability of potential detection, penalties for unauthorized migrants and their employers, and income differences between sending and receiving countries, this paper presents a new approach to the problem of illegal migration, grounded on the economic theory of illegal behaviour. The framework considers the interaction of potential migrants, citizens, employers, and the government. After introducing the supply function of illegal migration and its determinants, the trade-off between social costs and benefits of preventing and combating illegal migration is demonstrated. This trade-off results in an optimal level of migration larger than zero. A complete "market model" of illegal migration is offered by presentation of a demand curve of illegal migration, based on the tolerance of the society towards clandestine foreigners. Equilibrium forces predict a non-zero level of illegal migration. The rule of law of our legal systems, according to which any illegal activity has to be reduced to zero, bears the danger of producing inefficient disequilibria. A reasonable policy of wanted and unwanted migration should address the question of how to allocate scarce resources. Ignoring social optima and equilibrium forces means to abandon public resources that could be used for other public assignments, such as schooling or foreign aid, for instance, i.e., measures that could strike the problem of illegal migration at its root. [source] The Decline of America's Soft Power in the United Nations1INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 3 2009Monti Narayan Datta To what extent does anti-Americanism precipitate a decline in America's soft power? Nye postulates a negative relationship, presenting substantial implications for the U.S. national interest. In this paper, I test Nye's hypothesis through an examination of America's political influence within the United Nations. Using a fixed effects model, I regress voting alignment within the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on cross-national, aggregate public opinion toward the United States from 1985 to 2007. Controlling for foreign aid received and alliances with the United States, I find a statistically significant, positive relationship between favorable attitudes toward the United States and voting alignment within the UNGA on overall plenary votes and those votes for which the U.S. lobbies other UN-member states extensively. At the same time, controlling for temporal effects, states are far less supportive of U.S. interests in the UN throughout the tenure of President George W. Bush, capturing the effect of "anti-Bushism" in addition to anti-Americanism. The results of this study shed light on an emerging area of the literature that not only studies the sources of anti-Americanism, but also its consequences. [source] Dealing with Tyranny: International Sanctions and the Survival of Authoritarian Rulers,INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2010Abel Escribà-Folch This paper examines whether economic sanctions destabilize authoritarian rulers. We argue that the effect of sanctions is mediated by the type of authoritarian regime against which sanctions are imposed. Because personalist regimes and monarchies are more sensitive to the loss of external sources of revenue (such as foreign aid and taxes on trade) to fund patronage, rulers in these regimes are more likely to be destabilized by sanctions than leaders in other types of regimes. In contrast, when dominant single-party and military regimes are subject to sanctions, they increase their tax revenues and reallocate their expenditures to increase their levels of cooptation and repression. Using data on sanction episodes and authoritarian regimes from 1960 to 1997 and selection-corrected survival models, we test whether sanctions destabilize authoritarian rulers in different types of regimes. We find that personalist dictators are more vulnerable to foreign pressure than other types of dictators. We also analyze the modes of authoritarian leader exit and find that sanctions increase the likelihood of a regular and an irregular change of ruler, such as a coup, in personalist regimes. In single-party and military regimes, however, sanctions have little effect on leadership stability. [source] The business cycle in postwar LebanonJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2008Ghassan Dibeh Abstract The postwar business cycle in Lebanon was dominated by the exchange rate based stabilization (ERBS) program implemented by the successive postwar governments. In the early period 1993,2002, a boom-bust dynamics was generated during which the economy exhibited the well-documented stylised facts of ERBS programs. The paper develops a cyclical index (ci) for Lebanon during this period and a VAR model shows that real interest rates (rr) had a significant impact on the dynamics of the business cycle during the early ERBS period. The second period 2002,2005 was marked by a recovery generated by foreign aid given to Lebanon in the Paris II international donors' conference held in November 2002. The period ended in a recession in 2005 brought about by the assassination of Lebanon's ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri. The third phase of the business cycle was caused by the Israel,Lebanon war in the summer of 2006 which led to widespread civilian and infrastructure damage and ended a brief recovery in early 2006. Throughout the period 2002,2006, foreign aid was instrumental in the resilience of the ERBS program. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Foreign aid and long-run economic growth: empirical evidence for a panel of developing countriesJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2006Georgios Karras Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between foreign aid and growth in per capita GDP using annual data from the 1960 to 1997 period for a sample of 71 aid-receiving developing economies. The results show that the effect of foreign aid on economic growth is positive, permanent, statistically significant, and sizable: raising foreign aid by $20 per person of the receiving country results in a permanent increase in the growth rate of real GDP per capita by approximately 0.16,per,cent. Using an alternative foreign-aid measure, a permanent increase in aid by 1,per,cent of the receiving economy's GDP permanently raises the per capita growth rate by 0.14 to 0.26,per,cent. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Aid and Growth Accelerations: An Alternative Approach to Assessing the Effectiveness of AidKYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2007Jonas Dovern SUMMARY The paper applies an alternative approach to assess whether foreign aid promotes economic growth in developing countries, based on the concept of temporary growth accelerations suggested by Hausmann, Pritchett and Rodrik. In addition to aggregate aid, we differentiate between major aid categories, including grants, loans and so-called short-impact aid. It turns out that aid flows have a small but significantly positive effect on the conditional probability of growth accelerations. This result holds across different estimation methods. However, the significance of results crucially depends on the criteria applied to identify growth accelerations. [source] African Independent Churches in Mozambique: Healing the Afflictions of InequalityMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2002James Pfeiffer The recent explosive proliferation of African Independent Churches (AICs) in central Mozambique coincided with rapid growth of economic disparity in the 1990s produced by privatization, cuts in government services, and arrival of foreign aid promoted by Mozambique's World Bank/International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment Program. Drawing on ethnographic research in the city of Chimoio, this article argues that growing inequality has led to declining social cohesion, heightened individual competition, fear of interpersonal violence, and intensified conflict between spouses in poor families. This perilous social environment finds expression in heightened fears of witchcraft, sorcery, and avenging spirits, which are often blamed in Shona ideology for reproductive health problems. Many women with sick children or suffering from infertility turn to AICs for treatment because traditional healers are increasingly viewed as dangerous and too expensive. The AICs invoke the "Holy Spirit" to exorcise malevolent agents and then provide a community of mutual aid and ongoing protection against spirit threats. [Mozambique, social inequality, African Independent Churches, intrahousehold, health] [source] Democratisation and corruption in MongoliaPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2007Verena Fritz Abstract More democratic and open systems of government are generally assumed to contain corruption. Subsequent to the end of the communist system in 1990, Mongolia has established a democratic regime, and has been assessed as being relatively well governed. However, more recently, corruption has been worsening, despite the continuation of a democratic regime. This article inquires into the drivers of corruption and into the reasons for why accountability has not been more effective despite a democratic form of government. The availability of three major forms of rents,foreign aid, privatisation and natural resource extraction,is discussed as important drivers. The recent mining boom appears to have reinforced weaknesses in Mongolia's system of accountability. Underlying weaknesses include certain communist legacies, especially of intransparent government and of a ,dependent' judicial system, and substantially increased inequality as a result of transition. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] On The Empirics of Foreign Aid and Growth,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 496 2004Carl-Johan Dalgaard The present paper re-examines the effectiveness of foreign aid theoretically and empirically. Using a standard OLG model we show that aid inflows will in general affect long-run productivity. The size and direction of the impact may depend on policies, ,deep' structural characteristics and the size of the inflow. The empirical analysis investigates these possibilities. Overall we find that aid has been effective in spurring growth, but the magnitude of the effect depends on climate-related circumstances. Finally, we argue that the Collier-Dollar allocation rule should be seriously reconsidered by donor agencies if aid effectiveness is related to climate. [source] Salamanca and the city: culture credits, nature credits, and the modern moral economy of indigenous BoliviaTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 2 2006Kathleen B. Lowrey This article draws on fieldwork carried out in a Guaraní-speaking community in the Bolivian Chaco , Isoso , between 1997 and 2000. At the time, some Isoseño people were employed in urban-headquartered projects that revolved around Isoso's environment, culture, or identity and that were funded multilaterally by grants, loans, or other foreign aid. The article describes a set of fantastic discourses circulating in rural Isoso that seem to compare a magical place called Salamanca to the city where some Isoseño people now work. The article argues that these Salamanca discourses are an Isoseño-specific way of talking about a general set of unprecedented processes. It takes up the fact that undertakings of the kind in which the Isoseño are involved create new calibrations among radically different systems for moral/qualitative and material/ quantitative evaluation which can most ,economically' be expressed in terms of credit and debt. Finally, it considers why it is that for all their strange magic, Isoseño ,Salamanca and the city' discourses put an extremely recognizable suite of moral considerations at their centre. [source] Acts of Aid: Neoliberalism in a War ZoneANTIPODE, Issue 5 2009Jennifer Hyndman Abstract:, International aid is a dynamic bundle of geographical relationships at the intersection of war, neoliberalism, nature, and fear. The nexus between development and security warrants further conceptualization and empirical grounding beyond the instrumentalist and alarmist discourses that underwrite foreign aid. This article examines two such discourses, that of "aid effectiveness" and securitization, that serve to frame an analysis of aid to Sri Lanka. Since 1977, neoliberal policies of international assistance have shaped the country's economy and polity, and, since 1983, government troops and militant rebels have been at war. International aid focuses on economic development and support for peace negotiations, but little attention has been paid to the ways in which these agendas intersect to shape donor behavior and aid delivery. Drawing from research on international aid agencies operating in Sri Lanka, in particular the Canadian International Development Agency, the geopolitics of aid are analyzed. [source] A Survey of the Theoretical Economic Literature on Foreign AidASIAN-PACIFIC ECONOMIC LITERATURE, Issue 1 2006Elisabeth Paul This paper surveys the theoretical economic literature on foreign aid,in particular, the aid donor,recipient relationship. Economic theory, especially new institutional economics, can be very helpful in understanding foreign aid relationships,especially the incentive problems involved,and in designing institutions to improve aid effectiveness. In particular, it helps in understanding the chain of principal,agent relations inherent in the aid delivery system and the resulting potential for agency problems. The survey shows that economic theory can improve the design of cooperation modalities by aligning the incentives of donors and recipients for poverty reduction, but that, in order to address the problems, policy analysis must take into account the constraints faced by stakeholders in the aid relationship. The aid ,contract' should thus seek to improve the agents' incentives to use aid effectively, given the circumstances of the developing country. [source] Pax Democratica: The Gospel According to St. DemocracyAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 2 2003Mathurin C. Houngnikpo The thaw of the Cold War ended the chess game between the superpowers and seemingly gave new momentum to the revival and spread of liberal democracy and its corollary, capitalism. Just as missionaries once offered Christianity to "save" colonised peoples, democracy has become the new gospel promising "salvation". Both donor and recipient countries appeal to democracy, hoping that it will reverse decades of misfortune. Donor nations and multilateral financial institutions preach democratic governance. "Born again democratic" national leaders in the South who are intent on clinging to power attend to their sermons. None appear to have a genuine faith in democracy. While some nations and NGOs do give altruistically, most use foreign aid as another means of pursuing their national interest. Democracy is an elastic concept. Indeed it seems, at least at this point, that the new gospel of democracy is but a convenient tool used by different players for they own selfish reasons. [source] The Seed of Freedom: Regional Security and the Colombo PlanAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 1 2000Daniel Oakman Established in 1950, the Colombo Plan was a comprehensive program of foreign aid provided to South East Asian nations. In this article I argue that the Colombo Plan had a much broader political and cultural agenda, and cannot be understood from a humanitarian perspective alone. By exploring some of the cultural, ideological and political underpinnings of the scheme I illustrate that, as part of a comprehensive foreign policy, it is best understood as being motivated by international security priorities and the need to ally domestic cultural concerns. Although the Colombo Plan was inherently defensive, it also proved to be something of a progressive force which prepared the ground for a much closer relationship with (and within) the Southeast Asian region. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||