Since the turn of the century, aid flows to Africa have increased on average and become more volatile. As a result, policymakers, particularly in post-stabilization countries where inflation has only recently been brought under control, have been increasingly preoccupied with how best to deploy...

In post-independence sub-Saharan Africa, institutional arrangements for monetary policy have taken a variety of forms, although the historical evolution of many African financial systems has been similar. This paper identifies five different regimes and examines how they evolved over time. It...

We develop a model to analyze the macroeconomic effects of a scaling-up of aid and assess the implications of different policy responses. The model features key structural characteristics of low-income countries, including varying degrees of public investment efficiency and a learning-by-doing...

Africa lags behind other regions in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). In some circumstances, there are obvious explanations for the absence of FDI, such as a high incidence of war. In this paper, we examine the role that monetary and exchange rate policy may have played in explaining...

This paper surveys the economic literature on the scaling-up of aid to Africa. It provides a checklist of issues that need to be considered when preparing a long term macroeconomic projection for a country involving the assumption of a significant increase in aid. Such scaling-up scenarios are...

We study the role of the exchange rate regime, reserve accumulation, and sterilization policies in the macroeconomics of aid surges. Absent sterilization, a peg allows for almost full aid absorption — an increase in the current account deficit net of aid—delivering the same effects as those...

This paper investigates the extent of pass-through from the nominal exchange rate to import prices for a sample of nineteen African countries. The methodology is based on panel data cointegration testing. Using annual data extending back to 1971, long-run pass-through can be best described as a...

The relationship between foreign aid and economic growth is investigated for a panel of developing countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Sri-Lanka, and Tanzania) over the period 1974-1996. The results reveal that the variables contain a panel unit root and they cointegrate in a panel...

Several governments in sub-Saharan Africa have embarked on various market reforms to improve commodity market performance. However, the success of such market reforms depends partly on the strength of the transmission of price signals between spatially separated markets and between different...