Publications

The authors study a high-profile case: the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa. We illus...chevron_right

Over the last 25 years, the international community has pursued a series of measures to address unsustainable debt burdens in low-income countries. This essay provides a brief contextual overview of s...chevron_right

The Jubilee 2000 movement, which called for the cancellation of the foreign debts of the poorest nations, reached its zenith in the late 1990s and 2000—and then, by design, shut down. In the space of ...chevron_right

International Development Association (IDA) donors and others operating a country performance-based allocation system face two difficult problems: how to strengthen incentives to produce and document ...chevron_right

This policy brief takes the success of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), passed under US trade law in 2000, into question. The author argues that to revive the program and expand its bene...chevron_right

Developed countries are committed by the Millennium Development Goals, and under a 2005 WTO communiqué, to provide duty-free, quota-free market access for least developed countries (LDCs). Removing t...chevron_right

Today, with the Kerry-Lugar-Berman legislation authorizing $7.5 billion of US economic assistance to Pakistan, the question is how to invest the money smartly to bring about long-term development imp...chevron_right

This brief explores five fundamental changes underway in the emerging countries of Africa: (1) more democratic and accountable governments; (2) more sensible economic policies; (3) the end of the debt...chevron_right

Until recently, AIDS donors have paid too little attention to the effects their disease-specific interventions have on overall health workforces, most of which were weak and inadequately staffed even ...chevron_right

This essay examines the implications of demographics on infrastructure investments in developing countries, particularly in Africa, and its importance in achieving economic growth. Using demographic p...chevron_right

We report the results from a randomized evaluation of a mobile phone education program (Project ABC) in Niger, in which adult students learned how to use mobile phones as part of a literacy and numera...chevron_right

Aid-for-trade programs can help strengthen low-income countries’ supply capacity and knowledge of trade preferences, which will allow them to take fuller advantage of these preferences. Aid for trade ...chevron_right

This report focuses on the workforce strengthening strategies of three of the major HIV/AIDS donors: the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund, and the World Bank’s A...chevron_right

This paper considers the topic of oil and other mineral rents. In particular, it focuses on how countries should account for export price uncertainty in budget planning and how to absorb oil rents and...chevron_right

Corruption is one of many serious challenges which undermine the effectiveness of institutions and entire governments in many African countries. It seems to be appropriate to hold it responsible for i...chevron_right