The global aid environment has changed profoundly over the last decade. New official and nonstate players have emerged as prominent actors, new challenges like climate change and stabilizing fragile states have arisen, and new approaches to providing aid are being tried. This note summarizes...

Sub-Saharan Africa?s GDP has grown five percent a year since 2000 and is expected to grow even faster in the future. Although pessimists are quick to point out that this growth has followed increases in commodities prices, the success of recent political reforms and the increased openness of...

This paper analyzes environmental expenditures in Indonesia – a significant newly industrializing economy – reported at the plant level comprising all 23 thousand manufacturing establishments with more than 20 employees. Since compliance is barely enforced, pollution abatement expenditures...

Wir analysieren die Wirkung der Dezentralisierung auf die Korruption am Beispiel Indonesiens. Aus theoretischer Sicht ist der Effekt unbestimmt: Zwar erhöht die größere Nähe der Betroffenen zu den Entscheidungsprozessen ihre Eingriffs- und Partizipationsmöglichkeiten, und auch der...

This paper takes advantage of the exogenous phasing of direct elections in districts and applies the double difference estimator to: (i) measure impacts on the pattern of public spending and revenue generation at the district level; and (ii) investigate the heterogeneity of the impacts on public...

The recent political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa region have exposed growing concerns about conflict risk, political stability, and reform prospects across its societies. Given the prevalence of oil and gas resource endowments in the region, which a voluminous literature...

This paper takes advantage of the exogenous phasing of direct elections in districts and applies the double-difference estimator to measure impacts on (i) human development outcomes and (ii) the pattern of public spending and revenue generation at the district level. The analysis reveals that...