This paper evaluates aid by considering how effective aid has been in exerting leverage on policy choices. It is rather easy to demonstrate that if a country is unwilling to implement policy reforms, attaching conditions to aid will not ensure sustained reform. In this sense, conditionality does...

The past two decades have witnessed widespread attempts to reform tax structures in developing countries. As the relatively small formal sector limits the base for taxes on income, the major reform is to replace trade taxes with sales taxes. To the extent that this has involved rationalisation...

Our objective is to test the hypothesis that aid can improve the welfare of the poor. Part of this effect is direct, if aid is targeted on the poor, and part is indirected, via the transmission channel of aid-financed public spending on social services - sanitation, education and health. This...

Is aid subject to diminishing returns? This paper addresses this issue, thereby contributing to the literature on effective allocation of aid. We test the hypothesis of diminishing returns to aid. Using an appropriate econometric technique for detecting thresholds, we find that aid only becomes...

Does aid contribute to human development other than by increasing growth? In doing so, is aid more or less effective in poorer countries (those with low levels of aggregate welfare)? This paper addresses these issues, assessing if there is cross-country aggregate evidence for an effect of aid on...

This article uses the case of trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) to examine the liberalisation of investment and its potential impact on developing countries. Very few developing countries actually use TRIMs to any appreciable degree, but, when taken in conjunction with the broader...

Recent years have witnessed rapidly growing donor interest in tax issues in the developing world. This reflects a concern with revenue collection to finance public spending, but also recognition of the centrality of taxation to growth, redistribution and broader state-building and governance...