We argue that the tilt toward donor interests over recipient needs in aid allocation and practices may be particularly strong in new partnerships. Using the natural experiment of Eastern transition we find that commercial and strategic concerns influenced both aid flows and entry in the first...

This paper examines the consequences of participation in unenforceable international human rights institutions for economic and political development. Specifically, we study the empirical relationship between foreign aid, human rights, and participation in the United Nations Human Rights...

The degree to which females achieve basic human rights in early life plays an enabling role in empowering them during adulthood. A new metric of female status (Full Rights Realization Rate – FRRR) is defined as the proportion of females in early life who fully achieve a basket of basic rights....

There are serious institutional challenges associated with low-cost sanitation in deprived urban communities. These include a collective action challenge, a coproduction challenge, a challenge of affordability versus acceptability, and a challenge related to housing tenure. This paper examines...

The belief in occult forces is still deeply rooted in many African societies, regardless of education, religion, and social class of the people concerned. According to many Africans its incidence is even increasing due to social stress and strain caused (among others) by the process of...

This paper investigates the determinants of backward linkages of foreign manufacturing firms in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. We shed light on the micro and macro level factors which contribute to a higher degree of interactions between foreign subsidiaries and local firms. Our results...

The adoption of certain farm management practices, such as tree planting and soil and water conservation, can reduce exposure to weather shocks. However, in many countries the adoption of such risk mitigating measures is far from complete. We explore how risk-sharing networks in the form of...

The number of private schools has increased by more than four times since the introduction of the Free Primary Education (FPE) policy in 2003 in Kenya. With the help of panel data obtained from rural Kenya, we observed that the proportion of children attending private primary schools increased...

Using a recent Spanish database, we show that remittances respond to cross-country differences in portfolio values, behavior consistent with immigrant’s access to trans-national networks. Responsiveness to portfolio variables is found to persist regardless of education level. There are,...