Development cooperation has to be visible to ensure domestic political support. This explains the frequent calls for greater visibility at the headquarters level of aid agencies. However, effective development cooperation is not compatible with every form of visibility. Actions geared toward...

The existence of under-aided countries, sectors, and sub-national regions – also known as “aid orphans” – implies inefficiencies in the current overall allocation of aid resources. This is of particular concern because aid effectiveness depends not only on how well resources are...

Development assistance has for many decades been aiming to support developing countries’ strategies to achieve more sustainable development. Yet, evidence shows that the impact of such assistance has been well below expectations. This study examines the efforts of assistance providers and...

Die internationale Dimension des Umweltschutzes steht inzwischen außer Frage. Ein dauerhafter Schutz natürlicher Ressourcen erfordert daher gemeinsame Bemühungen der Staatengemeinschaft, die Staaten tragen eine gemeinsame Verantwortung für den globalen Umweltschutz. Der unterschiedliche...

Trotz der nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges erwarteten Friedensdividende erreichte die Zahl der Kriege und bewaffneten Konflikte Anfang der 1990er-Jahre eine Rekordzahl, wobei über 90 Prozent der Kriege und Konflikte in der so genannten Dritten Welt ausgetragen wurden. Durch diese Entwicklung,...

The paper examines empirically the proposition that aid to poor countries is detrimental for external competitiveness, giving rise to Dutch disease type effects. At the aggregate level, aid is found to have a positive effect on growth of labour productivity. A sectoral decomposition shows that...

We show that the impact of foreign aid on bureaucratic quality in recipient countries varies with the mode of delivery. Specifically, grants are found to impair the functioning of the bureaucracy, whereas loans are not. The negative impact of grants is larger when they are given as budget...

We present a two-step approach of assessing whether major donors of foreign aid have met recent demands for less proliferated and better coordinated aid efforts. First, we calculate Theil indices revealing the concentration of each donor's aid on recipient countries and specific aid sectors....

Previous literature largely ignores the heterogeneity of aid channels used by each single donor country. We estimate Tobit models to assess the relative importance of recipient need, recipient merit and self-interest of donors for various channels of official and private German aid across a...

In a report presented at the UN Conference on Financing for Development in March 2002, the World Bank claims that the effectiveness of its financial aid has improved substantially by targeting aid at poor developing countries pursuing sound economic policies. However, the World Bank's success...