The current framework for improving aid effectiveness, the ‘Paris’ agenda of harmonization and alignment, has been found lacking. Alternatives are needed. This paper highlights some examples of recent innovations in the management and delivery of development aid. Drawing upon Barder (2009)...

Political stability is an important precondition for economic development. While political stability cannot be created by laws alone, an effective legal framework for political governance, such as a constitution, can facilitate political stability. It is noted that political stability is not...

We investigate the heterogeneity of the impact of World Bank foreign aid projects on local economic development across countries, sectors and time. Using a grid-cell dataset of geo-referenced aid data, satellite night-time light imagery, and climatic and socio-economic controls, we employ a...

South Africa has exhibited tepid economic growth over the past twenty years as well as high levels of income inequality characteristic of a middle income country growth trap. This paper compares and contrasts South Africa's growth trap relative to middle-income peer economies. In addition, we...

While openness to trade is a well-recognized hallmark of the Asian growth model, another component of the model is a leapfrogging strategy - the use of policies to guide industrial structural transformation ahead of a country's factor endowment. Does the leapfrogging strategy work? Opinions vary...

The article provides a broad-based overview on competing development strategies and the economic performance of developing countries, mainly since the year 2000. Four traditional mainstream development strategies are discussed (Washington Consensus, neo-liberalism, "good governance" and MDGs)...

We examine the impact of geo-referenced World Bank development programs on subnational development using equally sized grid cells with a spatial resolution of 0.5 decimal degrees latitude x longitude as the unit of investigation. The proposed grid cell approach solves a number of endogeneity...

There are two widely-held views on economic growth: 1) it is a natural outcome of getting 'the basics' right - international integration, macroeconomic stability, and contract enforcement; and 2) it is hard, requiring a complete set of first, second, and third generation reforms that have little...

Countries face both challenges and opportunities in using their extractive industries to achieve more inclusive development - particularly in the developing world. Yet while a large national income can result from resource wealth, it can also be associated with acute social inequality and deep...