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State-led humanitarian aid: Another case of “government failure”

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  • Robert Higgs

Abstract

A review essay on Christopher Coyne’s Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013). The book considers whether state-led humanitarian actions can be expected to succeed in reducing human suffering. Finding that as a rule they cannot be expected to do so, Coyne devotes the greater part of the book to an analysis of such programs in the light of the economic way of thinking, which in his approach blends public choice, basic applied price theory, Austrian economics, and the new institutional economics. He concludes that the best way to reduce human suffering in the long run is by promoting sustained economic development and that the best way to achieve such development is by adopting institutions that protect economic freedom. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Higgs, 2013. "State-led humanitarian aid: Another case of “government failure”," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 493-496, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:26:y:2013:i:4:p:493-496
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-013-0228-6
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Humanitarian aid; International development; Government failure; Bureaucracy; Public choice; Austrian economics; B53; D73; F50; H84;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General
    • H84 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Disaster Aid

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