The HIPC Initiative: What Affects Duration?

In light of calls to improve the delivery of aid and debt relief, this paper uses survival analysis to examine possible factors affecting completion rates in the HIPC debt relief programme. The findings suggest that better economic management, increased economic, social and media freedoms, more effective government machinery, increased trade, a faster GDP per capita growth rate, increased democracy and a more stable political environment are all significant in speeding up completion times. Countries enrolled in the HIPC programme have an incentive to improve these indicators in order to reach completion point as quickly as possible and access debt relief so these results imply that improvements are feasible if there are tangible rewards at the end of the process.