We examine both grants and net loans made to low income countries during the last two decades to understand the main reasons that motivated the behaviour of both donors and creditors. We find that the total amount of transfers to HIPCs, as compared to non-HIPCs, have been increasing with their...

The HIPC Initiative requires countries receiving debt relief to undertake a Poverty Reduction Strategy programme involving elements of trade policy reform. This study reviews country experiences with respect to the impact of reforms of trade and trade-related policies on economic performance,...

One of the goals of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt initiative is to provide additional resources for basic health care to the population of eligible developing countries. In this paper I investigate the effect of debt relief on per capita health expenditure in a sample of...

Further to investigation of how Malawi accumulated external debts amounting to $2.7 billion, without a corresponding growth in the economy, exports capability or poverty reduction this paper much of the borrowing contracted during 1973-82 was consumed by balance of payments deficits caused by...

This paper examines economic rationale and efficiency effects of proposals directed at alleviating debt problems of poor countries. Key to the investigation is determination of whether proposed mechanisms tackle fundamental causes of the debt crisis. The paper finds that despite the enthusiasm...

On the basis of models I developed to simulate mathematical relationships between external debt and fiscal and balance of payments variables my thesis evaluates whether debt cancellation will overcome the debt overhang and crowding out effects of external debt and allow Severely Indebted Low...

This paper is a review of the different approaches on external debt sustainability. The Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative was launched to assure a permanent exit from debt dependence. However, the IMF-World Bank program is not without faults, in particular for what concerns debt...

In this paper we discuss monetary and fiscal policy issues facing heavily-indebted poor countries (HIPCs) who receive debt reduction via the enhanced HIPC initiative. This debt relief program is distinguished from previous ones by its conditionality: freed resources must be used for poverty...

Between 1989 and 2003, low-income countries received $100 billion in debt relief. The stated objectives for much of this debt relief have been to reduce debt overhang and to free up recipient government resources for development spending that would otherwise have been used for debt service. In...

This paper analyzes patterns of foreign direct investment in India. We investigate how labor conflict, credit constraints, and indicators of a state’s economic health influence location decisions of foreign firms. We account for the possible endogeneity of labor conflict variables in modeling...