UNU WIDER : Growth and employment

Growth and employment

Aid can help countries generate more growth and employment, but what are the channels that work best for growth? How can aid help improve the livelihoods of the poorest people, improve the opportunities for women in the labour market, and provide more emp

In this part of the ReCom–Research and Communication on Foreign Aid project we look at what aid can do to create more economic growth and employment . The key questions include; What are the effects of aid on growth? Through which channels does aid act best as a catalyzer for growth? How can aid help improve the livelihoods of the poorest people, improve the opportunities for women in the labour market, and provide more employment for young people?

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Finn Tarp

Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow

Professor Tarp has four decades of experience in academic and applied development economics research and teaching. His field experience covers more than two decades of in-country work in 35 countries across Africa and the developing world more...

Journal Article

What Is the Aggregate Economic Rate of Return to Foreign Aid?

In recent years, academic studies have been converging towards the view that foreign aid promotes aggregate economic growth. We employ a simulation approach to: (i) validate the coherence of empirical aid-growth studies published since 2008; and (ii)...

Video

UNU-WIDER Interview Series: Professor Lant Pritchett

An interview with Professor Lant Pritchett from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, conducted during his visit to Helsinki to deliver a presentation titled 'It’s a Deals World: The Dynamics of Capitalism with Weak Institutions' at a...

Video

UNU-WIDER Interview Series: Nicolas van de Walle

The intricate dynamic between foreign aid to Africa, democratic transitions and consolidation is the topic of a series of research papers being published under the ReCom Governance & Fragility theme this spring. In this interview we speak to Nicolas...

Video

ReCom results meeting: Jobs – Aid at work

The ReCom results meeting under the theme ‘Growth & Employment’ titled 'Jobs – Aid at Work' was held 8 October in Copenhagen, Denmark. Speakers included policy makers, practitioners and academics. More about the event here . What is ReCom? An...

Video

Research communication: Why doesn’t research turn into policy?

At the recent UNU-WIDER research conference on development and climate change, the communications team took the opportunity to ask participants visiting us here in Helsinki for their views on how research turns into policy. We heard many interesting...

Video

Aid creates growth and jobs

What can foreign do for economic growth and jobs? An important role of aid is to help poor countries mobilize their resources for producing goods and services, thus supporting growth.

Video

New landscape of poverty

The global landscape of poverty has been changing quite dramatically during recent years.

Policy workshop

Development finance - a role for foreign assistance

Has foreign aid boosted economic growth on average in developing countries? How and why is the aid landscape changing? What are the key strategic choices ahead for the development community? These and many other questions were discussed in a policy...

8 June 2015

Danish Embassy, Mchafukoge, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Past event

Working Paper

The Return to Foreign Aid

We investigate the marginal productivity of investment across countries. The aim is to estimate the return on investments financed by foreign aid and by domestic resource mobilization, using aggregate data. Both returns are expected to vary across...

Journal Special Issue

Aid Policy and the Macroeconomic Management of Aid

This is an introduction to the UNU-WIDER special issue of World Development on aid policy and the macroeconomic management of aid. We provide an overview of the 10 studies, grouping them under three sub-themes: the aid–growth relationship; the supply...