Foreign aid and fiscal response: Does aid disaggregation matter?

Foreign Aid and Fiscal Response: Does Aid Disaggregation Matter? —The present paper constitutes a new approach in the aid-effectiveness literature in two important respects. Firstly, it develops and then tests a model of foreign aid and fiscal response, which, for the first time in the aid-effectiveness literature, embraces the aiddisaggregation issue; we do this by disaggregating aid flows into three main components, namely programme aid, project aid and technical assistance, and by subsequently estimating our model for two countries, India and Kenya. Secondly, on the modelling front, we improve on earlier work in this area by using an appropriate specification for the recipient-country government’s welfare function, with significant positive implications for the empirical findings obtained. This new approach adopted in the paper and the empirical results obtained may have important implications for a better understanding of the fiscal impact of aid in aid-recipient countries.     

Foreign aid and domestic output in the long run

The principal argument of this paper is that the effect of aid on GDP depends on a trade-off that is country specific: aid has a direct positive effect through financing investment but an indirect effect through aggregate productivity that can be negative if aid exacerbates growth-retarding factors such as poor governance. Data for 59 developing countries over 1971–2003 are analysed to explore the trade-off and highlight the heterogeneous nature of the relationship between aid and output. We show that output, aid and investment comprise a cointegrated relation, and derive country specific estimates of the long run association between aid and output. These aid-output coefficients are, on average, negative but smaller than the positive investment-output coefficients. Insofar as aid is used to finance investment, the overall effect on output may therefore be positive. We also show that cross-country differences in the estimated long run aid-output coefficients can be explained mainly by cross-country differences in law and order, religious tensions and government size.     

Foreign aid as a promotional strategy

Developed countries are motivated by several forces when allocating aid to developing countries. The forces could be humanitarian in one country, and commercial self-interests in another. The principal objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of aid as a promotional strategy for trade, and to investigate whether major donor countries are optimally allocating their aid resources to increase their export and total trade. Models were developed to explore the effectiveness of aid as a promotional instrument for exports and total trade. Donor exports and total trade were expressed as functions of aid, per capita GNP of the recipient country, and aid from competing donors. The study showed that exports and total trade responded to total expected aid contributions and per capita GNP of the recipient countries. Also, all donors, but one, were maximizing the returns to aid, given the level of trade with recipient countries and will be reluctant to increase aid flows, given the current trade level.     

Foreign aid and conditions precedent: Political and bureaucratic dimensions

International donor agencies increasingly use their influence to press for major reforms in development policies and administrative practices in Third World countries. Reform recommendations are often conceptualized with little regard for the political and bureaucratic contexts in which they are to be adopted and pursued. Without greater concern for issues of political and bureaucratic feasibility, however, reform recommendations are likely to have only minimal impact. Policy space research and administrative systems research are promising approaches for acquiring and analyzing information about the political and bureaucratic aspects of government decision-making. Such analyses can improve the potential for reform recommendations to be adopted and pursued.     

Analysis of dynamics of public and private expenditures on health care and education in contemporary Russia

This paper provides an estimate of the dynamics in expenditures on health care and education made from all sources in Russia in the 1995–2012 and viewed as investments in human capital. These data from Russia are compared with those from other countries. The problems of efficiency in the functioning of these systems and different affordability of these services are considered.     

Foreign aid,government behaviour,and fiscal policy in Papua New Guinea

The paper explores a number of long standing questions surrounding how foreign aid has influenced the fiscal behaviour of the PNG Government. This includes whether grant aid has encouraged the PNG government to be less fiscally responsible and accumulate higher levels of foreign debt; whether grant aid has tended to lower the PNG government's domestic revenue raising efforts; whether grant aid has drawn government expenditures away from key service delivery sectors; and whether budget support and project and program aid have had differential effects with respect to any of the foregoing questions. The analysis reveals several important insights regarding the interplay between foreign aid and public sector fiscal behaviour including evidence that grant aid has been an important source of debt reduction during this period. However, grant aid has tended to erode the domestic tax base, which has limited the government's ability to increase aggregate expenditure levels. Evidence is also found that suggests a significant portion of budget support was spent on key development sectors, although it also undermined domestic revenue collection. A number of policy implications follow.     

外资炒房严重侵蚀国内民众利益

国内房地产市场暴利源于掠夺性的制度缺陷,因此,大量外资进入炒作,等于把国家财富拱手送给外国投机者     

Race and prosecution expenditures

There has been a steady accumulation of literature on racial differentials in crime and the response of the criminal justice system. A neglected component of societal response to crime has been the volume of prosecution expenditures. This article seeks to repair this neglect by examining state level difference inper capita prosecution expenditures in 1980 using a multiple regression equation. The results show that, holding other factors constant, lower prosecution expenditures are associated with higher percentages of blacks in a state’s population. The relationship of this to discrimination is discussed in terms of England.     

Public sector expenditures and financial crisis in Chile

Working with official government statistics, this paper shows that IMF stabilization guidelines which blame inflation and balance-of-payments disequilibrium on fiscal deficits are incorrect in the case of Chile. There government spending has for the most part been held in check during the military government. However, there are leading and lagging expenditure areas within the government. Military spending has steadily increased, while social expenditures have been cut. The latter point directly contradicts the official government position.     

Foreign aid versus support to social entrepreneurs: Reviewing the way of fighting poverty in Zimbabwe

Despite the development interventions that have been adopted to help the countries caught in a downward spiral of impoverishment, their problems still persist. This paper focuses on the role that traditional foreign aid and the more recent bottom–up approach of supporting social entrepreneurs are playing to tackle the situation of extreme poverty in Zimbabwe. Drawing upon a narrative inquiry, 35 stories were collected to bring fresh insights regarding the realities of such interventions as they are experienced by the local people. The evidence shows the main shortcomings of the current development models and suggests that the improvement of a declining economy such as Zimbabwe would need the interaction of various factors, so that some interventions will appear significant only when the conditions of primary importance exist in the environment. Additionally, the engagement of local people seems to be a key aspect to the success of some of the support measures.     

Mode of payment in household expenditures

Summary We have studied the choice of mode of payment from a 1987 Dutch household survey. The institutional arrangements of a transaction are a major determinant for the mode of payment, and so is the amount involved. A 10% increase in the sum paid usually leads to a reduction of about 1.3% to 2.3% in the incidence of currency use.Based on De keuze van een betaalmiddel (The Choice of Mode of Payment), (SEO, Amsterdam, 1989), which reports research commissioned by the Postbank, Amsterdam.     

Trends in energy expenditures by black households

Summary This paper presents an analysis of the projected trends in direct energy expenditures among black and white households classified by location, age, and sex of the household head, and income. Estimates of changes in the distribution of energy expenditures among groups of Black and white households are compared for 1974 and 1985. On the average, black households have lower income, larger families, drive older cars, and live in older and less energy-efficient homes. The analysis pursued here is intended to show how these determinants of energy consumption are reflected in black/white comparisons of energy expenditures. The 1985 projections are based on the mid-term 1985 energy Projection Series A through F prepared by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for its 1977 Annual Report to Congress. The EIA energy Projection Series were based on differing assumptions with regard to: (1) growth rates of economic activity; (2) the probable levels of recoverable U.S. oil and gas resources; and (3) oil import prices. Then present energy policy was assumed to continue. This analysis utilizes a microsimulation approach to project household energy expenditures and other household energyrelated variables.     

国外关于隐性失业公开化问题的理论、实践及其对我国的启示

所谓隐性失业,是相对公开失业而言,表现的是劳动者与生产要素结合的一种状态,即生产过程中生产资料与劳动力的构成失衡,劳动力供给超过了由生产技术条件所决定的生产资料对劳动力的需求,而出现的低效用或负效用现象。从形式上,隐性失业者并没有失业,因为他们仍然与生产资料保持     

Maintenance expenditures and indeterminacy under increasing returns to scale

This paper develops a one-sector real business cycle model in which competitive firms allocate resources for the production of goods, investment in new capital and maintenance of existing capital. Firms also choose the utilization rate of existing capital. A higher utilization rate leads to faster capital depreciation, and an increase in maintenance activity has the opposite effect. We show that as the equilibrium ratio of maintenance expenditures to GDP rises, the required degree of increasing returns for local indeterminacy declines over a wide range of parameter combinations. When the model is calibrated to match empirical evidence on the relative size of maintenance and repair activity, we find that local indeterminacy (and belief-driven fluctuations) can occur with a mild and empirically-plausible degree of increasing returns: approximately 1.08.