This paper makes two main contributions. First, we examine the long-run effect of foreign aid on domestic output for 59 developing countries using heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques to control for omitted variable and endogeneity bias to detect possible cross-country differences in the...

In the study "Do elites benefit from democracy and foreign aid in developing countries" (Journal of Development Economics, 2009) Bjørnskov asks if political elites benefit from foreign aid relative to the rest of the population. He concludes that his results provide qualified support for the...

It is common practice in empirical development macroeconomics to use cross-country samples for econometric analyses. One issue that is rarely addressed in this literature is the appropriateness of pooling when panels are used. In particular, does it matter to the results if the countries exhibit...

This paper considers how the conditionality inherent in HIPC debt relief should be constituted to promote pro-poor policies. There are two dimensions to this. First, the extent to which the policies proposed are pro-poor. Second, the potential for releasing resources for pro-poor expenditures....

This paper provides a critical analysis of the growth regressions in Burnside and Dollar (2000). First, we analyze the relation between aid and government expenditure in a modified neoclassical growth model. We find that while good policies spur growth they may at the same time lead to...

Two findings have been common in the literature on the impact of foreign aid on public sector fiscal behaviour in developing countries. The first is that aid "sticks" to higher levels of recipient government expenditure, with aggregate expenditure often rising by more than the value of the aid...

Our objective is to test the hypothesis that ai d can improve the welfare of the poor. Part of this effect is direct, if aid is targeted on the poor, and part is indirect, via the transmission channel of aid-financed public spending on social services - sanitation, education and health. This...

This paper contributes to the literature on aid and economic growth. We posit that it is not the level of aid flows per se but the stability of such flows that determines the impact of aid on economic growth. Three measures of aid instability are employed. One is a simple deviation from trend,...