Applying the general question of aid effectiveness to the sector of education, this paper reveals an overall positive effect of development assistance on primary enrolment. However, even the most optimistic estimates clearly show that at any realistic rate of growth, aid will never be able to...

This paper uses the gravity model of trade to investigate the link between bilateral and multilateral foreign aid and exports. There are three primary findings from this approach. First, in the long term, the average return, in terms of an increase in the donor's level of goods exports, is...

This paper documents the steady decline in Central Asia’s intra-regional trade since the mid-1990s, defying the 3-fold increase in overall trade from 1996 to 2005. Estimations of potential trade using gravity model confirm that the Central Asian countries, relative to their level of income and...

This paper studies the spread of the Black Death as a proxy for the flow of medieval trade between 1346 and 1351. The Black Death struck most areas of Europe and the wider Mediterranean. Based on a modified version of the gravity model, we estimate the speed (in kilometers per day) of...