Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Making Aid Work

Contents:

Author Info

  • Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee

    () (MIT)

  • Alice H. Amsden

    () (MIT)

  • Robert H. Bates

    () (Harvard University)

  • Jagdish Bhagwati

    () (Columbia University)

  • Angus Deaton

    () (Princeton University)

  • Nicholas Stern

    () (London School of Economics)

Abstract

With more than a billion people now living on less than a dollar a day, and with eight million dying each year because they are simply too poor to live, most would agree that the problem of global poverty is our greatest moral challenge. The large and pressing practical question is how best to address that challenge. Although millions of dollars flow to poor countries, the results are often disappointing. In Making Aid Work, Abhijit Banerjee--an "aid optimist"--argues that aid has much to contribute, but the lack of analysis about which programs really work causes considerable waste and inefficiency, which in turn fuels unwarranted pessimism about the role of aid in fostering economic development. Banerjee challenges aid donors to do better. Building on the model used to evaluate new drugs before they come on the market, he argues that donors should assess programs with field experiments using randomized trials. In fact, he writes, given the number of such experiments already undertaken, current levels of development assistance could focus entirely on programs with proven records of success in experimental conditions. Responding to his challenge, leaders in the field--including Nicholas Stern, Raymond Offenheiser, Alice Amsden, Ruth Levine, Angus Deaton, and others--question whether randomized trials are the most appropriate way to evaluate success for all programs. They raise broader questions as well, about the importance of aid for economic development and about the kinds of interventions (micro or macro, political or economic) that will lead to real improvements in the lives of poor people around the world. With one in every six people now living in extreme poverty, getting it right is crucial.

Download Info

To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

Bibliographic Info

as in new window
This book is provided by The MIT Press in its series MIT Press Books with number 0262026155 and published in 2007.

Volume: 1
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0-262-02615-5
Handle: RePEc:mtp:titles:0262026155

Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://mitpress.mit.edu

Related research

Keywords: aid; economic development; poverty;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

References

No references listed on IDEAS
You can help add them by filling out this form.

Citations

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

Cited by:
  1. Cadot, Olivier & Fernandes, Ana & Gourdon, Julien & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2011. "Impact Evaluation of Trade Interventions: Paving the Way," CEPR Discussion Papers 8638, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther, 2010. "Giving Credit Where it is Due," CEPR Discussion Papers 7754, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Maredia, Mywish K., 2009. "Improving the proof: Evolution of and emerging trends in impact assessment methods and approaches in agricultural development," IFPRI discussion papers 929, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  4. Yasuyuki Sawada & Masahiro Shoji & Shinya Sugawara & Naoko Shinkai, 2010. "The Role of Infrastructure in Mitigating Poverty Dynamics," Working Papers 4, JICA Research Institute.
  5. Sawada, Yasuyuki & Shoji, Masahiro & Sugawara, Shinya & Shinkai, Naoko, 2009. "The Role of Infrastructure in Mitigating Poverty Dynamics: The Case of an Irrigation Project in Sri Lanka," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51461, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
  6. Olofsgård, Anders, 2012. "The Politics of Aid Effectiveness: Why Better Tools can Make for Worse Outcomes," SITE Working Paper Series 16, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, Stockholm School of Economics.
  7. Matthew Morris & Jonathan Pryke, 2011. "Beyond Paris: 11 innovations in aid effectiveness," Development Policy Centre Discussion Papers 1110, Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
  8. Todo, Yasuyuki, 2011. "Impacts of Aid-Funded Technical Assistance Programs: Firm-Level Evidence from the Indonesian Foundry Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 351-362, March.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mtp:titles:0262026155

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Jake Furbush).

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.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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