Macroeconomic impact of foreign aid to developing countries

The thesis looks at the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. It is specially concerned with aid's impact on the public sector of less developed countries < LDCs> . Since the overwhelming majority of aid is directed to the public sector of LDCs, one can only understand the broader macroeconomic impact of aid if one first understands its impact on this sector. To this end, the thesis econometrically estimates " fiscal response" models of aid. These models, in essence, attempt to shed light on public sector fiscal behaviour in the presence of aid inflows, being specially concerned with the way aid is used to finance various categories of expenditures. The underlaying concern is to extent to which aid is " fungible" -that is, whether it finances consumption expenditure and reductions in taxation revenue in LDCs. A number of alternative models are derived from a utility maximisation framework. These alternatives reflect different assumptions regarding the behaviour of LDC public sectors and relate to the endogeniety to exogeniety> of aid, whether or not recurrent expenditure is financed from domestic borrowing and the determination of domestic borrowing. The original frameworks of earlier studies are extended in a number of ways, including the use of a public sector utility function which is fully consistent with expected maximising behaviour. Estimates of these models' parameters are obtained using both time-series and cross-section data, dating from the 1960s, for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Both structural and reduced-form equations are estimated. Results suggest that foreign aid to the official sector> is indeed fungible, albeit at different levels. Moreover, the overall impact of aid on public sector investment, consumption, domestic borrowing and taxation varies between countries. Generally speaking, aid leads to increases in investment and consumption expenditure, but reduces taxation and domestic borrowing. Comparative analysis does, however, show that these results are highly sensitive to alternative behavioural assumptions and, therefore, model specification.

The foreign presence in the early-industrial Haut-Rhin, 1820–22 : a short history from the ‘pre-history’ of immigration to France

An attempt to limit the rights of domiciled foreigners in the Alsatian department of the Haut-Rhin in 1821 provides an opportunity to examine the impact of immigration on early-industrial society and shifting perceptions of the place of foreigners in French society in a period often omitted from histories of immigration. New conceptions of belonging become evident, which demonstrate a turn away from local and subjective bonds to community, towards bonds regulated nationally through nationality law. Imposed in an emerging urban, industrial context, the limitations of rights—on access to the biens communaux and the droit d’affouage—were traditional restrictions of rural society and modes of distinguishing the included from the excluded and were imposed on long-settled foreigners who failed to become naturalized as French citizens. The article reflects on the question why, if the concerns about immigration and industrialization turned on recently arrived foreign workers, these traditional exclusions were imposed on established resident foreigners.

Liquidity black holes: why modern financial regulation in developed countries is making short-term capital flows to developing countries even more volatile

Includes bibliography

Recent African immigration to South America: The cases of Argentina and Brazil in the regional context

Incluye bibliografía

Recent resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, and by ECLAC, which may be of special interest to member countries of the CDCC

Includes bibliography

Summaries of resolutions recently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and ECLAC which may be of special interest to member countries of CDCC

Summary Summarises selected resolutions adopted by the forty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly which are of special interest to member countries of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee. These include observer status being granted to the ACS; Cooperation between the UN and the Caribbean Community and Implementation of the World Summit for Social Development.