A number of recent cross-country studies have revitalised the debate on the effectiveness of aid. While there is mounting evidence that aid does contribute to growth, there is some dispute as to whether good policy is a necessary condition for aid effectiveness. This paper is a contribution to...

This paper demonstrates that an empirical link between aid and trade exist (for some donor-recipient pairs), but that the nature of this linkage is complex and can take a variety of forms. By identifying this complexity (and variability) we challenge the assertion, often made in debates...

This paper reports on trends and levels of capital inflows, and the volatility of such inflows, to a sample of 60 developing countries over the period from 1970 to 1997. The data cover aid and other development finance as the principal forms of official flows, FDI and other private flows, and...

When are developing countries able to initiate periods of rapid growth and why have so few been able to sustain growth over decades? This book provides a novel conceptual framework built from a political economy of business-government relations and applies it to nine countries across Africa and...

In this paper, we provide causal evidence of the immediate and near-term impact of stringent COVID-19 lockdown policies on employment outcomes, using Ghana as a case study. We take advantage of a specific policy setting, in which strict stay-at-home orders were issued and enforced in two...

A multi-faceted program comprising a grant of productive assets, training, coaching, and savings has been found to build sustainable income for those in extreme poverty. We focus on two important questions: whether a mere grant of productive assets would generate similar impacts (it does not),...