IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

Loans or Grants?

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Cohen, Daniel
  • Jacquet, Pierre
  • Reisen, Helmut

Abstract

We argue in this paper that cancelling the debt of the poorest countries was a good thing, but that it should not imply that the debt instrument should be foregone. Debt and debt cancellations are indeed two complementary instruments which, if properly managed, perform better than either loans or grants taken in isolation. The core of the intuition, which we develop in a simple two-period model, relates to the fact that the poorest countries are also the most volatile, so that contingent facilities, explicitly incorporating debt cancellation mechanisms, are a valuable instrument.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/dp2007-06.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER) in its series WIDER Working Paper Series with number UNU-WIDER Research Paper DP2007/06.

as
in new window

Length: 18 pages
Date of creation: 2007
Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:dp2007-06
Contact details of provider: Postal:
Katajanokanlaituri 6B, 00160 Helsinki

Phone: +358-9-6159911
Fax: +358-9-61599333
Web page: http://www.wider.unu.edu/
Email:


More information through EDIRC

Keywords: grants; loans; developing countries;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as
in new window


  1. Jeremy Bulow & Kenneth Rogoff, 2005. "Grants versus Loans for Development Banks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 393-397, May.
  2. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1990. "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 92-96, May.
  3. Ramey, Garey & Ramey, Valerie A, 1995. "Cross-Country Evidence on the Link between Volatility and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1138-1151, December.
  4. Hulya Ulku & Tito Cordella, 2004. "Grants Versus Loans," IMF Working Papers 04/161, International Monetary Fund.
  5. Silvia Marchesi & Alessandro Missale, 2004. "What does motivate lending and aid to the HIPCs?," Development Working Papers 189, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
  6. Cohen, Daniel, 2001. "The HIPC Initiative: True and False Promises," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 363-380, Winter.
  7. Reisen, Helmut & Soto, Marcelo, 2001. "Which Types of Capital Inflows Foster Developing-Country Growth?," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 1-14, Spring.
  8. Devesh Kapur, 2002. "Do as I Say Not as I Do: A Critique of G-7 Proposals on Reforming the MDBs," Working Papers 16, Center for Global Development.
  9. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1990. "Cleaning Up Third World Debt without Getting Taken to the Cleaners," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 31-42, Winter.
  10. Michael A. Clemens & Steven Radelet & Rikhil Bhavnani, 2004. "Counting chickens when they hatch: The short-term effect of aid on growth," International Finance 0407010, EconWPA.
  11. Lisa CHAUVET & Patrick GUILLAUMONT & Sylviane GUILLAUMONT JEANNENEY & Pierre JACQUET & Bertrand SAVOYE, 2003. "Attenuating through Aid the Vulnerability to Price Shocks," Working Papers 200325, CERDI.
  12. Ratha, Dilip, 2001. "Complementarity between multilateral lending and private flows to developing countries : some empirical results," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2746, The World Bank.
  13. Matthew Odedokun, 2004. "Multilateral and Bilateral Loans versus Grants: Issues and Evidence," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 239-263, 02.
  14. Rodrik, Dani, 1995. "Why is there Multilateral Lending?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1207, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  15. Sanjeev Gupta & Benedict Clements & Emanuele Baldacci & Carlos Mulas-Granados, 2004. "The persistence of fiscal adjustments in developing countries," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 209-212.
  16. Reisen, Helmut & von Maltzan, Julia, 1999. "Boom and Bust and Sovereign Ratings," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 273-293, July.
  17. Robert Powell, 2003. "Debt Relief, Additionality, and Aid Allocation in Low Income Countries," IMF Working Papers 03/175, International Monetary Fund.
  18. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer & Wilfer, Tom, 2005. "Grants versus loans: Much ado about (almost) nothing," Kiel Economic Policy Papers 4, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).
  19. Louise Young, 2002. "Determining the Discount Rate for Government Projects," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/21, New Zealand Treasury.
  20. Odedokun, Matthew, 2003. "Economics and Politics of Official Loans versus Grants Panoramic Issues and Empirical Evidence," WIDER Working Paper Series 004, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
  21. Iman Sugema & Anis Chowdhury, 2005. "Aid and Fiscal Behaviour in Indonesia: The case of a lazy government," Centre for International Economic Studies Working Papers 2005-06, University of Adelaide, Centre for International Economic Studies.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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

as
in new window


Cited by:

  1. Almuth Scholl, 2013. "Debt Relief for Poor Countries: Conditionality and Effectiveness," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2013-23, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
  2. Johansson, Pernilla, 2009. "Grants to needy countries? A study of aid composition between 1975 and 2005," Working Papers 2009:19, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  3. George Mavrotas & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2007. "Foreign Aid Heterogeneity: Issues and Agenda," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 143(4), pages 585-595, December.
  4. 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.

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

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:dp2007-06. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Mauricio Roa Grisales)

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.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.