Can the World Cut Poverty in Half? How Policy Reform and Effective Aid Can Meet International Development Goals

Collier, Paul ; Dollar, David

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AVERAGE INCOME;    AVERAGE LEVEL;    BASELINE ANALYSIS;    BUSINESS CYCLE;    CAPITA GROWTH;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2403
RP-ID  :  WPS2403

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

More effective development aid couldgreatly improve poverty reduction in the areas where povertyreduction is expected to lag: Sub-Saharan Africa, EasternEurope, and Central Asia. Even more potent would besignificant policy reform in the countries themselves. Theauthors develop a model of efficient aid in which the totalvolume of aid is endogenous. In particular, aid flowsrespond to policy improvements that create a betterenvironment for poverty reduction and effective use of aid.They use the model to investigate scenarios-of policyreform, of more efficient aid, and of greater volumes ofaid-that point the way to how the world could cut poverty inhalf in every major region. The fact that aid increases thebenefits of reform suggests that a high level of aid tostrong reformers may increase the likelihood of sustainedgood policy (an idea ratified in several recent case studiesof low-income reformers). The authors find that the world isnot operating on the efficiency frontier. With the samelevel of concern, much more poverty reduction could beachieved by allocating aid on the basis of how poorcountries are as well as on the basis of the quality oftheir policies. Global poverty reduction requires apartnership in which "third world" countries andgovernments improve economic policy while "firstworld" citizens and governments show concern aboutpoverty and translate that concern into effective assistance.