This paper presents a two-sector small semi-open economy Ramsey growth model involving foreign aid as an input in the production function. An activist government allocates this input endogenously across sectors and optimizes policies in a non-standard way. Once calibrated, mainly on countries...

The paper compares different aid policy instruments and their effect on the target group. Starting from a situation where interest groups compete for the resources of the government, international financial institutions aim to change the policy outcome. They can either directly support one group...

We show the relevance of government expenditure inefficiency using the Barro (1990) model. We estimate government inefficiency for 52 developing countries using a data envelopment analysis. The estimated inefficiencies are subsequently used in a general to specific approach in order to identify...

In diesem Beitrag formulieren wir zunächst einige Hypothesen über die möglichen Beiträge der Währungspolitik zur gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung vor dem Hintergrund des berühmten Trilemmas, das prinzipiell für jede Währungsordnung gelöst werden muss. Anschließend lassen wir in einem...

In this paper, we discuss the new aspects of exchange rate policy which can be observed in the emerging market economies and their most likely implications for allocation, distribution and stabilization goals. A special emphasis is put on the Chinese case, where large interventions in the...

Post-apartheid South Africa is facing three major economic problems: (1) slack economic growth, (2) high and growing unemployment and (3) among the world's highest income inequality and poverty indices. South Africa is currently caught in a macro-economic straight-jacket of tight monetary,...

We show that a simple and intuitive three-parameter equation fits remarkably well the evolution of the gross domestic product (GDP) in current and constant dollars of many countries during the times of recession and recovery. We then argue that it can be used to detect shocks and discuss its...

We show that a simple and intuitive three-parameter equation fits remarkably well the evolution of the gross domestic product (GDP) in current and constant dollars of many countries during times of recession and recovery. We then argue that this equation is the response function of the economy...

In this paper, it is shown that, contrary to standard arguments, fiscal discipline is not substantially enhanced by a fixed exchange rate regime. This study is based on data from 116 countries collected from 1975 to 2004 and uses various estimation techniques for dynamic panel data, in...

Argentinien hat im Januar 2002 seine Zahlungsunfähigkeit erklärt und hofft seitdem auf neue Kredite des IWF. Anders als früher stellt der IWF nicht nur an die Zentralregierung Vorbedingungen: er fordert nämlich insbesondere, daß die Gebietskörperschaften eine kooperative Politik der...