Showing papers by "William Easterly published in 2003"
TL;DR: The authors found no evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect country incomes directly other than through institutions, nor do they find any effect of policies on development once they control for institutions.
1,439 citations
TL;DR: The idea that "aid buys growth" is on shaky ground theoretically and empirically as discussed by the authors, and it doesn't help that aid agencies face poor incentives to deliver results and underinvest in enforcing aid conditions and performing scientific evaluations.
Abstract: The widely publicized finding that "aid promotes growth in a good policy environment" is not robust to the inclusion of new data or alternative definitions of "aid," "policy" or "growth." The idea that "aid buys growth" is on shaky ground theoretically and empirically. It doesn't help that aid agencies face poor incentives to deliver results and underinvest in enforcing aid conditions and performing scientific evaluations. Aid should set more modest goals, like helping some of the people some of the time, rather than trying to be the catalyst for society-wide transformation.
1,156 citations
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: The economic history of the world is replete with recessions and depressions, from the bursting of the British South Sea Bubble and the French Mississippi Bubble in 1720 (which at least one economic historian claims delayed the industrial revolution by 50 years) to the industrial depressions of the 1870s and 1930s, to the Latin American middle income debt crisis, African low-income debt crisis and ex-Communist output collapse, and East Asian financial crisis, crises have been a constant of market capitalism as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it." The economic history of the world is replete with recessions and depressions. From the bursting of the British South Sea Bubble and the French Mississippi Bubble in 1720 (which at least one economic historian claims delayed the industrial revolution by 50 years) to the industrial depressions of the 1870s and 1930s, to the Latin American middle income debt crisis, African low income debt crisis, ex-Communist output collapse, and East Asian financial crisis, crises have been a constant of market capitalism. Add to that the collapses that have accompanied non-economic shocks like wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, fires, pests, droughts, and floods, and it is a wonder that anyone in the world has economic security. More recently, economic crises have often tended to go hand in hand with financial crises whose frequency and severity in developing countries has increased over the past quarter century. The causes and nature of these crises have differed. For example, those that characterized the debt crises of the 1980s were precipitated by profligate governments with large cash deficits and uncontrolled monetary policies. The more recent ones have occurred in countries which, for the most part,
638 citations
TL;DR: The authors conducted a data gathering exercise that updated their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93, and found that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Abstract: The Burnside and Dollar (2000, AER) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that updates their data from 1970 -93 to 1970 -97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93. We find that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
284 citations
Book•
01 Oct 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the macroeconomic effects of private sector participation in infrastructure in Latin America, focusing on the output cost of Latin America's infrastructure gap.
Abstract: This book is organized as follows: Introduction; by William Easterly and Luis Serven Latin America's Infrastructure in The Era of Macroeconomic Crises; by Cesar Calderon, William Easterly, and Luis Serven The Output Cost of Latin America's Infrastructure Gap; by Cesar Calderon and Luis Serven Infrastructure Compression and Public Sector Solvency in Latin America; by Cesar Calderon, William Easterly, and Luis Serven Macroeconomic Effects of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure; by Javier Campos, Antonio Estache, Noelia Martin, and Lourdes Trujillo. Regulation and Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure; by Sheoli Pargal
205 citations
TL;DR: The authors conducted a data gathering exercise that updated their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970-1993, and found that the BD finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Abstract: The Burnside and Dollar (2000) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that updates their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970-93. We find that the BD finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
153 citations
Posted Content•
01 Jan 2003
121 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This paper conducted a data gathering exercise that updated their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93, and found that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Abstract: The Burnside and Dollar (2000, AER) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that updates their data from 1970 -93 to 1970 -97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93. We find that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
117 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors conducted a data gathering exercise that updated their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970−93, and found that the BD finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Abstract: The Burnside and Dollar (2000) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that updates their data from 1970–93 to 1970–97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970–93. We find that the BD finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
104 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This article found that the association between growth and policies does not explain many stylized facts of the postwar era, depends on the extreme policy observations, and the association is not robust to different estimation methods (pooled vs. fixed effects vs. cross-section).
Abstract: National economic policies’ effects on growth were over-emphasized in the early literature on endogenous economic growth. Most of the early theoretical models of the new growth literature (and even their new neoclassical counterparts) predicted large policy effects, which was followed by empirical work showing large effects. A reappraisal finds that the alleged association between growth and policies does not explain many stylized facts of the postwar era, depends on the extreme policy observations, that the association is not robust to different estimation methods (pooled vs. fixed effects vs. cross-section), does not show up as expected in event studies of trade openings and inflation stabilizations, and is driven out by institutional variables in levels regressions.
79 citations
TL;DR: This article found no evidence that private and public investment are productive, either in Africa as a whole (unless Botswana is included in the sample), or in the manufacturing sector in Tanzania, and this restricted sense, inadequate investment is not the major obstacle to African economic development.
Abstract: While many analysts decry the lack of sufficient investment in Africa, we find no evidence that private and public investment are productive, either in Africa as a whole (unless Botswana is included in the sample), or in the manufacturing sector in Tanzania. In this restricted sense, inadequate investment is not the major obstacle to African economic development.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This article conducted a data gathering exercise that updated their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93, and found that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Abstract: The Burnside and Dollar (2000, AER) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that updates their data from 1970 -93 to 1970 -97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93. We find that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was formally implemented on 1 January 1994 by the United States, Canada, and Mexico as mentioned in this paper, and the high expectations were that trade liberalization would help Mexico catch up with its northern neighbors.
Abstract: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was formally implemented on 1 January 1994 by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This treaty instantly gained global notoriety following the initiation of formal negotiations in 1991, not only because the initiative represented one of the most comprehensive trade agreements in history, but also because it seemed to be a breakthrough in establishing free trade in goods and services among developed and developing countries. The high expectations were that trade liberalization would help Mexico catch up with its northern neighbors. The ratio of Mexican GDP per capita to that of the United States did increase after unilateral trade reforms were implemented in 1986 and also after the implementation of NAFTA in the aftermath of the so-called tequila crisis. However, other Latin American economies also grew faster than the U.S. economy after the mid-1980s, especially Chile and, to a lesser extent, Costa Rica. Thus it is not obvious that NAFTA was particularly important in helping Mexico catch up with the United States.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The idea that "aid buys growth" is on shaky ground theoretically and empirically as discussed by the authors, and it doesn't help that aid agencies face poor incentives to deliver results and underinvest in enforcing aid conditions and performing scientific evaluations.
Abstract: The widely publicized finding that "aid promotes growth in a good policy environment" is not robust to the inclusion of new data or alternative definitions of "aid," "policy" or "growth." The idea that "aid buys growth" is on shaky ground theoretically and empirically. It doesn't help that aid agencies face poor incentives to deliver results and underinvest in enforcing aid conditions and performing scientific evaluations. Aid should set more modest goals, like helping some of the people some of the time, rather than trying to be the catalyst for society-wide transformation.
TL;DR: This paper examined the evidence concerning the impact of NAFTA on economic convergence in North America and concluded that free trade alone alone will not necessarily lead to economic convergence, but initial conditions determined which regions within Mexico benefited the most, and thus the post-NAFTA period has been characterized by economic divergence within Mexico.
Abstract: The negotiations of NAFTA in the early 1990s immediately raised high expectations for economic convergence in North America. These hopes were grounded in neoclassical economics. This paper examines the evidence concerning the impact of NAFTA on economic convergence in North America. Any such analysis is hampered by the big-events-little-time problem, which makes the identification of the NAFTA effect difficult due to contemporaneous big shocks and the relatively little time that has transpired since 1994. Time series evidence shows that the debt crisis of the early 1980s and the Tequila crisis of 1995 stalled a process of convergence that might have accelerated after trade liberalization in Mexico and NAFTA. Cross-country evidence indicates that a substantial share of the current income gap between the U.S. and Mexico can be explained by an institutional gap. Panel data evidence indicates, nevertheless, that NAFTA might have had a substantial effect on manufacturing TFP convergence. But initial conditions determined which regions within Mexico benefited the most, and thus the post-NAFTA period has been characterized by economic divergence within Mexico. We conclude that NAFTA has been helpful but free trade alone will not necessarily lead to economic convergence in North America.
Posted Content•
01 Jan 2003
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the macroeconomic effects of private sector participation in infrastructure in Latin America, focusing on the output cost of Latin America's infrastructure gap.
Abstract: This book is organized as follows: Introduction; by William Easterly and Luis Serven Latin America's Infrastructure in The Era of Macroeconomic Crises; by Cesar Calderon, William Easterly, and Luis Serven The Output Cost of Latin America's Infrastructure Gap; by Cesar Calderon and Luis Serven Infrastructure Compression and Public Sector Solvency in Latin America; by Cesar Calderon, William Easterly, and Luis Serven Macroeconomic Effects of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure; by Javier Campos, Antonio Estache, Noelia Martin, and Lourdes Trujillo. Regulation and Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure; by Sheoli Pargal
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This paper conducted a data gathering exercise that updated their data from 1970-93 to 1970-97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93, and found that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.
Abstract: The Burnside and Dollar (2000, AER) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that updates their data from 1970 -93 to 1970 -97, as well as filling in missing data for the original period 1970 -93. We find that the Burnside and Dollar (2002, AER) finding is not robust to the use of this additional data.