Helping hand? Aid to failing states

We define 'failing states' are those low-income states in which policy and governance is persistently very bad. We develop a theory of reform in these states in which several characteristics of the society might potentially be the binding constraint on change. We then introduce aid, disagg...

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Main Authors: Chauvet, L, Collier, P
Format: Working paper
Language:English
Published: 2006
Subjects:
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author Chauvet, L
Collier, P
author_facet Chauvet, L
Collier, P
author_sort Chauvet, L
collection OXFORD
description We define 'failing states' are those low-income states in which policy and governance is persistently very bad. We develop a theory of reform in these states in which several characteristics of the society might potentially be the binding constraint on change. We then introduce aid, disaggregated into technical assistance and finance, showing how it might affect these constraints. We then test our theory of aid and reform on global data. We estimate hazard functions to establish what enhances the prospects of sustained reform. We find that a proxy for the relaxation of the binding constraints postulated in the theory is highly significant. There is some evidence that both technical capacity in the society and elite interests are particularly important. Early aid has substantial but offsetting effects: technical assistance consolidates incipient reform whereas finance chills it.
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spelling oxford-uuid:0773910a-21c5-48f1-948d-48573f2734ad2022-03-26T09:07:35ZHelping hand? Aid to failing statesWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:0773910a-21c5-48f1-948d-48573f2734adJEL: O50JEL: F35Development economicsJEL: C41EnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2006Chauvet, LCollier, PWe define 'failing states' are those low-income states in which policy and governance is persistently very bad. We develop a theory of reform in these states in which several characteristics of the society might potentially be the binding constraint on change. We then introduce aid, disaggregated into technical assistance and finance, showing how it might affect these constraints. We then test our theory of aid and reform on global data. We estimate hazard functions to establish what enhances the prospects of sustained reform. We find that a proxy for the relaxation of the binding constraints postulated in the theory is highly significant. There is some evidence that both technical capacity in the society and elite interests are particularly important. Early aid has substantial but offsetting effects: technical assistance consolidates incipient reform whereas finance chills it.
spellingShingle JEL: O50
JEL: F35
Development economics
JEL: C41
Chauvet, L
Collier, P
Helping hand? Aid to failing states
title Helping hand? Aid to failing states
title_full Helping hand? Aid to failing states
title_fullStr Helping hand? Aid to failing states
title_full_unstemmed Helping hand? Aid to failing states
title_short Helping hand? Aid to failing states
title_sort helping hand aid to failing states
topic JEL: O50
JEL: F35
Development economics
JEL: C41
work_keys_str_mv AT chauvetl helpinghandaidtofailingstates
AT collierp helpinghandaidtofailingstates