Good public policy needs to be evidence based. However, the evidence base is thin for many policy issues. How can policy makers best respond to such thin areas of research that are also quite likely to change over time? Our survey investigates the evolution of the econometric evidence base for...

Our study, Doucouliagos and Paldam (2008), has recently been critically discussed by Mekasha and Tarp (2011). In this paper we show that contrary to what they state, their study validates our basic analysis: Both papers confirm that the literature has shown that aid is of little economic...