Policy Wise

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Previously, we have argued that foreign aid is not the best way tackle poverty in the developing world. A story in the The New York Times illustrates wh

But the law in the United States requires that virtually [...]

Improving market access, not aid, will help the developing world

Western countries are constantly criticized for the low level of their aid to developing countries. According to this logic, the rich countries are obliged to help the developing world and it’s failing in its moral duty by not increasing direct financial aid.
There is [...]

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, David Wessel warns,
The issue, in this light, isn’t whether trade makes the world as a whole richer. It does. The issue is the distribution of those gains. If [...]

M Bukri Musa explains why micro credit, so sucessful in Bangladesh, has failed to deliver the same results elsewhere.
But these well-intentioned endeavors will fail — as with the Malaysian experience — if they focus only on lending, and not on changing underlying attitudes and behavior. The Malaysian initiative could be enhanced by not linking the [...]

Paul Krugman has an interesting article on free market guru-Milton Friedman.
Milton Friedman played three roles in the intellectual life of the twentieth century. There was Friedman the economist’s economist, who wrote technical, more or less apolitical analyses of consumer behavior and inflation. There was Friedman the policy entrepreneur, who spent decades campaigning on behalf of [...]