Journal Special Issue
Development Aid
Following on WIDER's work on Development Finance which has involved three projects since 2002, a development conference on 'Aid: Principles, Policies and Performance' was organized in June 2006. Aid is one of the most challenging development issues...
Policy Brief
Sustainability of External Development Financing to Developing Countries
External development finance consists of those foreign sources of funds that promote or at least have the potential to promote development in the destination countries if delivered in the appropriate form. This rather broad definition qualifies all...
Journal Special Issue
Aid Allocations and Development Financing
The real value of official aid flows fell for much of the 1990s, and private capital flows to low-income countries remain mostly limited. The decline in aid flows may endanger the development process, since they finance much of the development budget...
Journal Special Issue
Development Financing
The real value of official aid flows fell for much of the 1990s, and private capital flows to low-income countries remain mostly limited. The decline in aid flows may endanger the development process, since they finance much of the development budget...
Journal Special Issue
FDI to Developing Countries
As one of globalisation's most visible dimensions, foreign direct investment (FDI) is central to the prospects for developing countries in the world economy. Key issues include the direction of causation between FDI and growth, the potential role of...
Journal Special Issue
Foreign Aid Heterogeneity
The present paper serves as an introduction to this special issue providing a justification for, and linking and introducing to the articles that follow. A central message emanating from the papers included in this special issue is that it is not...
Working Paper
The Provision of Global Liquidity
This paper analyses three major problems of the current international monetary system: the asymmetric-adjustment problem, dependence on the monetary policy of the main reserve-issuing country, and the large demand for self-insurance by developing...
Working Paper
China-Africa Co-operation in Structural Transformation
This paper examines China and Africa co-operation from the angle of structural transformation as a major driver of growth and job creation. Being a bit ahead in the structural transformation process, China can provide ideas, tacit knowledge...
Policy Brief
Governing Globalization
This policy brief is intended to outline suggestions and stimulate discussion at a time when the world community is thinking about, and is engaged in, a debate on global governance. The policy brief not only focuses on the reform of existing...
Policy Brief
New Sources of Development Finance
As a result of the Five Year Review of the World Summit for Social Development, the UN General Assembly in September 2000 adopted a resolution calling for 'a rigorous analysis of the advantages, disadvantages and other implications of proposals for...
Working Paper
Structural Adjustment in Africa
The main purpose of this paper is to argue that Ghana's economic recovery under SAP would have been much brighter if policy makers had not made some obvious errors in the application of the theory of 'comparative advantage' and in the selection...
Working Paper
The International Debt Problem
The aim of this paper is to raise a few open questions and to bring to light some mismatches between existing theories and the evidence. (1) It is shown that many standard international debt models unwittingly require some agents to behave...
Working Paper
A Land Cursed by its Wealth?
In Angola, the availability of two abundant resources (oil and diamonds) has prolonged the conflict beyond its Cold War context. The geography and political economy of these resources were crucial to the course taken by the conflict. Matching the...
Working Paper
Contribution Possible De L'excédent Japonais Au Développement Économique Mondial
1. La communauté internationale doit mettre au point des methodes permettant de soutenir la croissance japonaise afin d'attenuer les effets de l'essoufflement americain et d'enrayer toute amorce de deflation mondiale.2. Alors que certaines des...
Working Paper
Capital Flows to Developing Countries of the International Financial System
Recent financial crises, whose effects have been particularly severe in developing countries, have led to a wide-ranging debate on international financial reform. This debate has had to confront the implications of the huge growth of international...
Working Paper
Development Assistance and Development Finance
Understanding the development effects of official aid is crucial to building a better bridge between research and policy. This paper reviews the current evidence regarding the impact of aid on growth and poverty reduction, and develops a new...
Working Paper
Causes and Lessons of the Mexican Peso Crisis
This paper analyses in depth the causes of the Mexican peso crisis, so as to learn relevant lessons for similar crisis occurring in other developing or transitional economies. The study follows a relatively chronological order, examining first the...
Working Paper
Will the Emergence of the Euro Affect World Commodity Prices?
The emergence of the euro as a key currency, perhaps eventually rivalling the US dollar in importance, may have important macroeconomic implications for industrial as well as developing economies in the years ahead. This paper focuses on two related...
Working Paper
EMU and the Developing Countries
The purpose of this paper is to explore economic and political implications of Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) for developing countries. In strictly economic terms, influences will be communicated through both trade and financial channels...
Book Chapter
China-Africa Cooperation in Structural Transformation
From the book: Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics, Vol. 2.
Working Paper
Understanding Chinese and Western Development Finance in Uganda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe
China’s importance as a major donor outside the traditional Western donors has been increasing and this has helped to bridge the funding gaps in developing countries. At the same time, South-South financial assistance still comes with less...
Working Paper
‘Ground-Truthing’ Chinese Development Finance in Africa
A new methodology, Tracking Under-Reported Financial Flows (TUFF), allows us to systematically gather open-source information—e.g. news reports, case studies, project inventories from embassy websites, and grant and loan data published by recipient...
Working Paper
How Do We Increase the Share of Aid to Agriculture in Africa?
Agriculture plays an important role in terms of employment and its contribution to gross domestic product in many African countries. Thus, any policy initiative targeted towards poverty reduction in Africa should consider the agricultural sector as...
Book Chapter
Foreign Direct Investment, Innovative Sources of Development Finance and Domestic Resource Mobilisation
From the book The Millennium Development Goals: Raising the Resources to Tackle World Poverty by Fantu Cheru, Colin Bradford, Jr.
Working Paper
Proposals for Curbing the Boom-Bust Cycle in the Supply of Capital to Emerging Markets
This paper examines what might be done to limit the boom-bust cycle in the flow of capital to emerging markets. Although the paper accepts that some types of capital flow (notably foreign direct investment) are much less problematic in this respect...
Working Paper
Liquidity Black Holes
Modern financial regulation has been about the spread of market-sensitive risk-management systems for banks, the spill-over of this approach to other financial institutions and the retreat of regulatory ambition. There is evidence that these trends...
Book
Advancing Development
Leading scholars and policymakers reflect on current thinking in development economics and on what may happen during the next two decades. Covering the major themes in development in an accessible way, this original and authoritative contribution...
Book
The Impact of EMU on Europe and the Developing Countries
Much has been written about EMU, mostly concerning its desirability and whether it will ever come to exist. Now it is here, and likely to stay. The 'next generation' of research on EMU is already under way, and this volume presents a significant...
Book
Financial Openness and National Autonomy
The authors of this book tackle the question of whether national policy autonomy is still possible, in the process challenging the new orthodoxy, and the dangers attendant upon deregulation. They explore the `political economy' of financial openness...
Book
Financial Development, Institutions, Growth and Poverty Reduction
This volume explores the various linkages between financial development, institutions, growth and poverty reduction in low-income and transition countries. It is the result of a two-year research project undertaken by UNU-WIDER, and the strong range...
Working Paper
Loans or Grants?
We argue in this paper that cancelling the debt of the poorest countries was a good thing, but that it should not imply that the debt instrument should be foregone. Debt and debt cancellations are indeed two complementary instruments which, if...
Working Paper
The Asian Currency Crisis
What started in the summer of 1997 as a regional economic and financial crisis in East and Southeast Asia had developed into a global financial crisis within the span of a year. This crisis followed the crisis in the European Monetary System in 1992...
Working Paper
Non-Financial Corporate Risk Management and Exchange Rate Volatility in Latin America
This article studies the currency risk management of multinational companies with investments in Latin American countries. The analysis is centred on episodes of currency or financial shocks, searching into the behaviour of the financial management...
Working Paper
Does Financial Openness Promote Economic Integration?
We study whether financial openness facilitates the economic integration of formerly centrally planned economies with the EU-15. Two dimensions of economic integration are considered: cross-country convergence of per-capita incomes and bilateral...
Working Paper
Political Economy of Additional Development Finance
The paper considers the political obstacles and supports for additional development finance and a number of possible devices through which advantage may be taken of the supports and the obstacles circumvented. It emphasizes the need for effective...
Working Paper
Innovative Sources for Development Finance
In analysing proposals for new sources of development funding, there are several issues that arise across the board. What is the role of new sources in relation to existing overseas development assistance? Should we be seeking new sources that...
Working Paper
Remittances by Emigrants
Remittances, after foreign direct investment, are currently the most important source of external finance to developing countries. Remittances surpass foreign aid, and tend to be more stable than such volatile capital flows as portfolio investment...