This paper models the inter-temporal allocation of foreign development aid to Papua New Guinea (PNG). A formal theoretical model of aid allocation is developed, in which aid to any one country is determined jointly with aid to all other recipient countries. This is recognized in the econometric...

Why do people participate in community projects? Game theory approaches based on the prisoners' dilemma suggest that people will not participate even if they would have been better off had they all done so. This paper adapts an argument of Bates to show how a system of enforceable fines can...

The World Bank report Assessing Aid argues that aid can have positive effects on growth and infant mortality, but only when good policies are being followed by the recipient. It follows, especially since aid is fungible, and so cannot be targeted to particular uses, that donors should focus...

This paper provides an introduction to this special issue of Oxford Development Studies. It starts by contextualizing the measurement of vulnerability, pointing to the need to take risks on the level of households, regions and countries into account in designing poverty-reduction strategies. It...

A small but growing literature has been concerned about the economic (and environmental) vulnerability on the level of countries. Less attention is paid to the economic vulnerability of different regions within countries. By focusing on the vulnerability of subnational regions, this paper...