Decentralising health services – the transfer of power and responsibility from the central to the local level – should help the poor if local resources, accountability and governance are in good shape. The process in China and India had negative effects because local governments remained...

Cancelling of poor-country debt does not mean that the best way to give aid is through grants only. Aid through loans may often prove superior, provided that it maintains debt sustainability. A new scheme for soft loans is suggested, with higher interest rates and cancellation provisions if bad...

Growth will accelerate for net oil exporters and weaken slightly for oil importers. Inflation is rising due to increases in the price of food imports and rising oil prices. The current-account deficits of oil-importing countries are increasing.

Over the past 20 years, public attitudes towards aid in OECD countries have remained steadily positive throughout economic ups and downs. At the same time, polling data shows that voters continue to strongly support aid to developing countries, despite the financial crisis.

To meet pressing development challenges, Latin American states need fiscal resources. The good news is that in the last decade, favourable macroeconomic conditions and the design of better tax systems pushed up fiscal revenues in Latin America. Notably, tax revenues have increased by close to...

Are the financial markets politically correct? In other words, do they have preferences when it comes to political regimes or partisans? This issue has often been explored with regard to foreign direct investment (FDI) or public development aid, but rarely in relation to portfolio flows in...

The East Asian development experience is still not well understood – especially the region’s clustered, sequential development process and neighbourhood effects linking economies at different levels of industrial development. Until now, the development impact of OECD-country policies had...

The contagion of the global credit crisis from the industrialised countries to the emerging markets has taken some time to develop. Then, in October 2008, it spread rapidly, afflicting all emerging markets, without any distinction or regard to their so-called “fundamentals”. For believers in...

A coherent institutional framework that supports investment, exchange and representation mechanisms is a key precondition for agricultural development. The importance of customs and traditions for the process of agrarian transformation has been overlooked. Changes in formal institutions must be...

The effects of migration on development depends on who leaves, where they go, and how home countries adjust to their leaving. Migration and development policies are comlements, not substitutes. Smart visa policies, coupled with capacity building at home can maximise the positive impact of migration