Curse or Blessing? Has the impact of debt relief lived up to expectations? A review of the effects of the multilateral debt relief initiatives for low-income countries

Marin Ferry and Marc Raffinot

No DT/2018/12, Working Papers from DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation)

Abstract: As the multilateral debt relief initiatives draw to a close, this article reviews the impacts of debt relief to low-income countries (LICs) building on both the theoretical and empirical literature of past decades. We show that, while the pioneering studies of the early 2000s are inconclusive, the most recent analyses overcome certain methodological impediments to highlight significant multilateral debt relief initiative effects. These analyses hence suggest that these large-scale programmes may well have met expectations, at least in part. _________________________________ (français) Alors que les initiatives multilatérales d’annulation de dette touchent à leur fin, cet article passe en revue les études empiriques et théoriques des dernières décennies visant à évaluer leurs impacts sur le développement des pays bénéficiaires. Cet article montre ainsi que malgré les résultats peu concluants des études du début des années 2000, des analyses plus récentes permettent d’apprécier les effets de ces programmes d’annulation de dette, surmontant ainsi les problèmes méthodologiques des articles antérieurs. Leurs résultats suggèrent que les initiatives d’annulation de dette pourraient bien avoir atteint leurs objectifs, du moins en partie.

Keywords: Debt relief; Financing for development; Low-income countries; Annulation de dette; Financement du développement; pays à faible revenu. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E61 E62 F35 F64 H63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2018-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Curse or Blessing? Has the Impact of Debt Relief Lived up to Expectations? A Review of the Effects of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiatives for Low-Income Countries (2019)
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