We examine how foreign aid can be used to induce a recipient country to engage in trade-policy reforms. First, we develop a two-country and two-period theoretical model where the donor's promise of aid in period 2 depends on the recipient's chosen tariff in period 1. Without aid, optimal tariff...

At present, the enhanced HIPC initiative and the Gleneagles Proposal for debt write-downs by the G8 are the main mechanisms used to reduce indebtedness of low-income countries. In these countries where poor governance is a key issue, it is naïve to believe that the Millennium Development Goals...

Despite many decades of research, fundamental questions regarding foreign aid effectiveness and the motivation of donors remain unanswered. Since traditional analyses have not resolved these questions, I utilize social network theory to provide a new perspective on these questions. With this new...

We develop a theoretical model showing that countercyclical transfers from a wealthy donor to a poorer recipient generate a signal of altruistic donor motivation. Using OECD foreign aid (ODA) data we find the signal present in approximately one-sixth of a large set of donor-recipient pairs. We...

Official development assistance is a key source of external finance in many developing countries. A striking feature of these aid flows is their positive correlation with the business cycle of recipient countries. This pattern is puzzling in that it reinforces recipients' already strong and...

We show how major shareholders can exploit their power over international organizations to hide their foreign-policy interventions from domestic audiences. We argue that major powers exert influence bilaterally when domestic audiences view the intervention favorably. When domestic audiences are...

This study explores a basic idea in political economy: trading money for political influence. Our focus is at the level of international institutions, where governments may exploit their influence in one organization to gain leverage over another. In particular, we consider the lending...

This paper documents that developing countries with opaque institutions receive procyclical development aid and procyclical promises of future aid while developing countries with transparent institutions receive countercyclical aid. It provides a dynamic equilibrium model of optimal aid policy...

Global demarcations exist between development aid and foreign direct investment. Rigorous statistical analysis that contrasts the relative homogeneous and heterogeneous influences of time-series panel data allows regions in the developing world to define themselves endogenously. The results...

This paper provides a critical review of the recent research on aid effectiveness. It argues that there is an enormous disjunction between research on aid effectiveness and current policies and practices: in particular, recent empirical research efforts have spawned a large body of work that is...