Helping the Poor to Help Themselves: Debt Relief or Aid / Serkan Arslanalp, Peter Blair Henry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arslanalp, Serkan.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Henry, Peter Blair.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w10230.

NBER working paper series no. w10230

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Helping the Poor to Help Themselves

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2004.

Summary:

Debt relief is unlikely to stimulate investment and growth in the world's highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs). This is because the HIPCs do not suffer from debt overhang. The principal obstacle to investment and growth in the world's poorest countries is a lack of basic economic institutions that provide the foundation for profitable economic activity. If the goal is to help poor countries build the institutions that best suit their development needs, then the energy and resources currently devoted to the HIPC initiative could be more effectively employed as direct foreign aid.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2004.