Debt Relief for Poor Countries: Conditionality and Effectiveness

This paper studies the effectiveness of debt relief to stimulate economic growth in the most heavily indebted poor countries. We develop a neoclassical framework with a conflict of interest between the altruistic donor and the recipient government and model conditionality as an imperfectly enforceable dynamic contract. Our findings suggest that incentive-compatible conditions substantially promote fiscal reform and investment in the short- and long-run. In contrast to the recent practice of fully canceling multilateral debt, optimal debt relief is characterized by a combination of outright grants and subsidized loans. Losing loans as a policy instrument reduces welfare considerably.