IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/worlde/v26y2003i1p43-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Debt Relief for Low Income Countries: Is it Effective and Efficient?

Author

Listed:
  • Graham Bird
  • Alistair Milne

Abstract

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to IMF conditionality and to the effects of IMF programmes, relatively little attention has been paid to their completion rate. However, the record is that the clear majority of Fund programmes are uncompleted. Is this a cause for concern and why is it that the completion rate is low? In principle, a number of factors could be at work. Gaining a better understanding of what these are should allow policy reform at the IMF to improve performance. While there are things that we do not know and need to know about programme completion, we know enough to delineate the broad direction that policy should take.

Suggested Citation

  • Graham Bird & Alistair Milne, 2003. "Debt Relief for Low Income Countries: Is it Effective and Efficient?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 43-59, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:26:y:2003:i:1:p:43-59
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9701.00509
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9701.00509
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-9701.00509?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joanna Gravier-Rymaszewska, 2012. "How Aid Supply Responds to Economic Crises: A Panel VAR Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-025, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Nicolas Depetris Chauvin & Aart Kraay, 2005. "What Has 100 Billion Dollars Worth of Debt Relief Done for Low- Income Countries?," International Finance 0510001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Ferrarini, Benno, 2008. "Proposal for a Contingency Debt Sustainability Framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2547-2565, December.
    4. Johansson, Pernilla, 2008. "Debt Relief, Investment and Growth," Working Papers 2008:11, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    5. Presbitero, Andrea F., 2008. "The Debt-Growth Nexus in Poor Countries: A Reassessment," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-28.
    6. HEPP, Ralf, 2010. "CONSEQUENCES OF DEBT RELIEF INITIATIVES IN THE 1990s," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(1).
    7. Cordella, Tito & Missale, Alessandro, 2013. "To give or to forgive? Aid versus debt relief," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 504-528.
    8. Sanford, Jonathan E., 2004. "IDA Grants and HIPC Debt Cancellation: Their Effectiveness and Impact on IDA Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1579-1607, September.
    9. Freytag, Andreas & Pehnelt, Gernot, 2009. "Debt Relief and Governance Quality in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 62-80, January.
    10. Marin Ferry & Marc Raffinot, 2019. "Curse or Blessing? Has the Impact of Debt Relief Lived up to Expectations? A Review of the Effects of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiatives for Low-Income Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(9), pages 1867-1891, September.
    11. Chung‐Hua Shen & Hsing‐Hua Hsu, 2022. "The determinants of Asian banking crises—Application of the panel threshold logit model," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 248-277, March.
    12. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-25 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Ms. Sandra Marcelino & Ms. Ivetta Hakobyan, 2014. "Does Lower Debt Buy Higher Growth? The Impact of Debt Relief Initiatives on Growth," IMF Working Papers 2014/230, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Lisandro Abrego & Doris C. Ross, 2002. "Debt Relief under the HIPC Initiative: Context and Outlook for Debt Sustainability and Resource Flows," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-44, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Marchesi, Silvia & Missale, Alessandro, 2013. "Did High Debts Distort Loan and Grant Allocation to IDA Countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 44-62.
    16. Gravier-Rymaszewska, Joanna, 2012. "How Aid Supply Responds to Economic Crises: A Panel VAR Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series 025, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Ralf Hepp, 2005. "Can Debt Relief Buy Growth?," International Finance 0510003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Mayr, Karin, 2010. "Optimal Deficit and Debt in the Presence of Foreign Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 19-27, January.
    19. Gunter, Bernhard G. & Rahman, Jesmin & Wodon, Quentin, 2008. "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul? Understanding Who Pays for Debt Relief," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-16, January.
    20. Powell, Robert & Bird, Graham, 2010. "Aid and Debt Relief in Africa: Have They Been Substitutes or Complements?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 219-227, March.
    21. Johansson, Pernilla, 2010. "Debt Relief, Investment and Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 1204-1216, September.
    22. Graham Bird, 2004. "Growth, poverty and the IMF," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 621-636.
    23. Green, Keith, 2005. "The fragile panacea of debt relief for developing countries," MPRA Paper 18098, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    24. William Akoto, 2013. "Do countries strategically improve their institutions to access increased debt relief?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(2), pages 1185-1192.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:26:y:2003:i:1:p:43-59. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.